One of the more unusual lots at Adam’s Asian and Tribal art auction on June 25 is this Qianlong Scotsmen plate. The ‘Scotsmen’ or ‘Highlanders’ decoration count as one of the most important and iconic imageries seen on Chinese export art. The figures in the centre depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, known as Jacobitism, which aimed to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. On July 18, 1743, Corporals Samuel and Malcolm McPherson and Private Farquar Shaw were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia, USA, as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialised on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures. This plate dates to 1745-50 and is estimated at €1,500-€3,000.
The 25 defining masterpieces of modern figurative painting from the Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s on June 24 constitute the most valuable single collection ever offered in London.
A nude considered scandalous by Modigliani leads an auction which features stellar artists like Picasso, Schiele, Bacon, Klimt, Freud, Caillebotte and Toulouse-Lautrec. Modigliani’s sensuous Nu assis au collier (Seated nude with necklace) ranks among the most important works by the artist ever to come to market. It is estimated to make around £45 million (€52.1 million). Painted in 1917 it belongs to a series now widely regarded as pivotal in the evolution of modern art, but considered so outrageous at the time the exhibition in which they featured was shut down by the police. Modigliani is one of a rare coterie of artists to have broken the $100 million threshold at auction, not just once but twice – each time in New York. Both were works from this series. The mantle now passes to London where this is one of the highest value works of any kind ever offered in the city and the highest value work by Modigliani ever to be offered in Europe.
Pablo Picasso – Buste de Femme
A suite of seven works by Picasso spans eight full decades of his career. The group is led by a highly unusual and evocative portrait of Dora Maar, the vibrant, fiercely independent artist who first attracted his attention by playing ‘knife roulette’ between her splayed fingers on an adjacent table at Les Deux Magots in Paris. As well as becoming Picasso’s muse and lover Maar also became his indispensable intellectual and artistic sparring partner. Given both the provocative nature of their nine year relationship and the tumultuous backdrop against which it unfolded (the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War), the vast majority of Picasso’s renditions of Dora Maar are angular and jagged in form. Buste de femme, unseen for over half a century, is a rare example of something quite different – a generous, sweepingly lyrical rendition of the Dora Maar with whom Picasso was still entirely besotted in 1938 when this work was painted.
Egon Schiele – Danaë
With its jewel like surface and geometric patterning Egon Schiele’s Danaë – painted when the artist was just 19 – is seen as a key breakthrough work. Here Schiele imagines the mythological scene in which Zeus descends on Danaë in a shower of golden rain, its heaviness accentuated by the introduction of greens and blacks. Schiele died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 aged just 28.
Bacon’s Two Studies for a Self-Portrait was made in 1977 and captures an artist beset by inner turmoil. Following the suicide of his love George Dyer in 1971 Bacon launched into a period of production that would become the most emotionally fraught but ambitious of his career. Behind these works lies a decade of guilt, bereavement, and self-scrutiny, marked by the deaths of many of those closest to him – not only George Dyer, but also Peter Lacey. When asked in 1979 why he made so many self-portraits, Bacon explained: “people have been dying around me like flies and I’ve had nobody else to paint but myself.”
Many of the works in a sale estimated to make in the region of £200 million (€231.5 million) have been shown in major museums across the globe. They were assembled over decades by Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne. Born and raised in London’s East End, Joe Lewis felt a natural affinity as a collector with the School of London painters, such as Bacon and Freud, whose work confronted the human condition with an uncompromising intensity. That early passion became the foundation for what is today one of the world’s most important private collections of modern art, shaped by a fascination with the human figure in all its forms.
Over the years the collection has been re-shaped. The Lewis journey as collectors is far from over. “We remain committed to the avant garde painters of today, much of whose work is informed by the artists showcased here” a statement said.
Billionaire Joe Lewis, who left school at 15 to help his father run his father’s West End catering business, was born in 1937 to a Jewish family living above a public house in Bow, East London. He holds assets through his Tavistock Group and was previously the majority owner of ENIC Group, the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur. Accused of tipping off associates and friends with non public information and charged with multiple counts of insider trading in New York in 2023 he pleaded guilty. Lewis was spared jail time, fined $5 million and later pardoned by Donald Trump. His art collection is estimated to be worth $1 billion.
A platinum aquamarine and diamond ring is lot 174 at the current online sale of fine jewellery and watches at Adams Blackrock. It is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. There are watches by Rolex, Piaget and Tag Heuer and a wide selection of jewellery among more than 550 lots. The auction runs until the evening of June 17.
The Moore St. Flag of Truce at Fonsie Mealy’s sale.
In this age of digital and AI it is good to see the enduring popularity of rare book and collectors sales. All sorts of interesting lots come under the hammer. Fonsie Mealy’s three day sale in Castlecomer on June 23, 24 and 25 is headed by the Moore St. flag of truce, the white linen handkerchief which indicated the Volunteers wished to surrender their final position during the Easter Rising on April 29, 1916. Singularities like this do not come cheap and this one is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
With more than 1,250 lots on offer there is much to choose from, including sporting memorabilia, historical and political items and literature including the first edition in English of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and a scarce 1823 edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Viewing gets underway in Castlecomer on June 19.
In Birr the book auction with more than 600 lots at Purcell Auctioneers on June 17 offers eight folio volumes from the 1871 census arranged by province and county (€600-€800), four folio volumes from the 1881 census with more than 4,000 pages of statistical information and a first edition of Dancing at Lughnasa signed by Brian Friel (€300-€500). At Purcell’s sale in May a 15th century medieval legal manuscript in middle French from the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) made €36,000 at hammer.
The programme for the 1914 All Ireland Football Final refereed by the patriot and revolutionary Harry Boland at Fonsie Mealy.
DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937), Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), acrylic on canvas, painted in 1972 sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s in November 2018. Photo: courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd.
THE art world is in mourning today over the death of David Hockney. He was one month short of his 89th birthday. In a career that spanned seven decades Hockney was always innovative, forward looking, open to new ideas and new ways of seeing. His vivid work, which he continued right to the end, influenced a whole generation of artists. He has been the subject of fascinating retrospectives in major world museums. In Britain the Tate said they would continue to work with Hockney’s team to stage two planned projects next year.
The Hockney exhibition at Tate in 2017 was the most visited exhibition in the museums history.
Announcing his death today Hockney’s representatives said: “The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.”
The statement added that his “enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humour, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase: Love Life”.
An Egyptian Limestone pair statue of the Royal Acquaintances Nebefwy and Mes-sat.
An important Egyptian limestone pair statue of the royal acquaintances Nebefwy and Mes-sat, dating to the Old Kingdom, Mid to Late 5th Dynasty, circa 2400–2300 B.C comes up at Christie’s in London on June 30. The hieroglyphic inscription identifies the couple and their son, Meh-er-nefer, who is recorded as the dedicant of the monument in honour of his parents. The statue is recorded at Hovingham Hall in North Yorkshire since 1778 and carries an exceptional provenance extending from Sir James Porter, British Ambassador in Constantinople, to King George III, who subsequently gifted it to Thomas Worsley. It comes to auction at the Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures.
19th century Killarney davenport made €14,000 at hammer
There was some cheer on the antique furniture front at day one of Victor Mee’s three day sale of contents from the Convent of Mercy in Newry and other clients today. A ten foot long Irish Georgian mahogany wake table made a hammer price of €21,500 and a 19th century Killarney arbutus and marquetry davenport made €14,000 on the hammer. Stellar results like this are encouraging in an era where quality antique pieces are increasingly being by-passed at auction. The Armagh Harp with carved and painted Celtic motifs made by James McFall in Belfast made €4,800 at hammer and an early 19th century pedal harp by Sebastian Erard made €3,200. The auction continues on June 10 and 11.
Irish Georgian mahogany Wake table on square legs made €21,500 at hammer
UPDATE: THE CIBORIUM PHOTOGRAPHED HERE MADE €41,500 AT HAMMER, THE OTHER MADE €40,000 AT HAMMER
Two exceptionally rare Irish gold ciboria discovered at the Convent of Mercy in Newry, authenticated as important examples of nineteenth-century Irish ecclesiastical pieces, come up at Victor Mee’s convent sale on June 9, 10 and 11. Hallmarked in Dublin and dating from 1881 and 1882 they were made by Dublin goldsmith John Donegan. Crafted in 22-carat gold and decorated with intricate foliate ornamentation, both pieces are surmounted by crosses. One ciborium contains an insert set with nine old-cut diamonds and three moissanites. Lots 852 and 861 are each estimated at €30,000-€40,000. A ciborium is a covered vessel used to hold consecrated hosts for the Christian Eucharist.
Markey Robinson (1918-1999) – Achill Sound. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500 AT HAMMER
Achill Sound, a gouache on board by Markey Robinson, is lot 6 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall art auctions which runs to 6.30 pm on June 8. The estimate is €1,000-1,500. More than 450 affordable lots of art are on the catalogue. There are etchings by popular artists like Sean Scully, Donald Teskey and William Crozier, oils by Norman McCaig, Brian Ballard, Kenneth Webb and Graham Knuttel, drawings by Tony O’Malley, Mainie Jellett and John Butler Yeats and sculpture by Siobhan Bulfin and Michael Foley among the wide selection on offer. The auction kicks off with a pastel on paper by John Shinnors, Day at the Circus II and the catalogue is online.
Francois Xavier Lalanne – Set of four Grenouille Fountains (1981) at Christie’s. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $6,297,000
The most expensive frog fountains in the world are heading to the auction block at Christie’s design sale in New York on June 10. From the collection of American designer Alexandra Marshall, who commissioned them directly from the artist in 1981, the set of four Grenouille fountains designed by Francois Xavier Lalanne are estimated at $2.5 million – $3.5 million (€2.15 million – €3 million). Cast in patinated bronze the playful fountains are finished in a bright turquoise green with mouths that open when the water is turned on and close when it is turned off. They are the most expensively estimated lot at a sale at Christie’s which features titans of design from Tiffany studios and William Morris to Alberto Giacometti, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé and Joaquim Tenreiro.
