Ireland

While demand is encouraging, a scarcity of high-quality work is hitting the supply side

Since the first Festival of Music and the Arts took place in 1951, the annual Wexford Festival Opera in the south-east Irish town has specialised in neglected works and has become one of the world’s leading opera festivals.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from October 9-20, 2018.

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from October 2-12, 2018.

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from September 25-October 6, 2018.

Gracing the catalogue cover of Whyte’s Irish & International Art auction in Dublin on October 1 is this work by Séan Keating (1889-1977).

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from September 18-27, 2018.

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from September 11-21, 2018.

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from September 4-15, 2018.

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from August 28-September 9, 2018.

One of Ireland’s leading provincial auction houses, Mealy’s Fine Art of Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, has ceased trading after 84 years.

These outsize tongs, below, proved the major surprise at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on June 17.

Irish silver was popular at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in June – see ATG next week – and Irish furniture did well enough, with a c.1830 serpentine side table with marble-and-malachite top getting away at €8000 (£7000).

John Magnier, the Irish horse breeder and art collector, reportedly made a five-fold return on his Amadeo Modigliani reclining nude when it sold at Sotheby’s New York last month for $139m (£102.2m).