Paul Henry's A Sunny Day Connemara set a new world record of €420,000. DUBLIN.- On March 9 Whyte’s held its first major art auction of the year, just as the pandemic took effect in Ireland. That weekend the government imposed the first set of restrictions including a limit of 100 people at indoor events. The auction room at the RDS was packed and nearly exceeded that limit. The sale was extremely successful and grossed €1.2 million for 85% of the lots offered. Unusually the highest result was for a Polish artist, Tadeusz Brzozowski (1918-1987) whose painting MASTIFF (CWAJNOS), 1967, fetched €190,000 plus fees from a collector in Poland. Of course there was an Irish connection – the painting had been exhibited at ROSC in 1967 after which it was purchased by an Irish collector. AUCTIONEERS ADAPT TO LOCKDOWNA week later the first lockdown was imposed and all businesses closed their doors until June. However, Whyte’s continued to service buyers and sellers by internet and telephone. Having been one of the first auction houses to have online bidding back in 1995 Whyte’s were well adept at doing business in cyberspace. On-line timed sales were organised for less valuable sales while “virtual” auctions which included telephone and absentee bidding as well as participation via various internet platforms throughout the world, hosted the higher ticket works. In order to mitigate the fears of clients bidding “blind” Whyte’s provide, online, extra photographs including images to scale in a domestic setting and an app to project pictures to scale on walls. Whyte’s also publishes condition reports on-line and, very importantly, issues certificates of authenticity for every lot sold.HISTORY SELLS WELL DURING BREAK IN RESTRICTIONSCollectors embraced the new forms of auction with alacrity and great enthusiasm, and prices, which were already showing much improvement in 2018-2019 were generously pushed upward with some aggressive online bidding. Whyte’s had postponed its annual and popular “Eclectic Collector” sale to 25 July, when relaxed restrictions allowed a room attendance of up to 50 masked bidders, socially spaced, in the appropriately historic surroundings of The Freemasons Hall. Among the highlights was a 1916 Proclamation…
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