This pair or late 17th/early 18th century Italian portraits made €73,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s fine art and antique sale. With a provenance to the Ponsonby’s of Ballynatray, Waterford the oils on canvas depict classical female saints. A c1630 painting of an angel and the dead Christ at candlelight from the Circle of Triomphe Bigot made €19,000 and a Madonna and Child with the infant St. John the Baptist by Raffaellino del Garbo (1466-1524) made €13,000. An early 20th century Fabergé circular pill box made €15,000.
The Meeting of Dante and Virgil, 1546–49. Wool, silk, tapestry weave. Courtesy of Mia.
The only early Medicean tapestry in a public collection outside Italy is to be restored. The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is recipient of the 2026 Museum Restoration Fund from The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF). Joint support from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project will enable the conservation of The Meeting of Dante and Virgil, a monumental 16th-century Italian tapestry of exceptional rarity and importance.
Established in 2012, the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund supports the conservation and related scholarly research of significant works held in public collections. This year marks the first time the fund has supported the treatment of a tapestry. Mia holds one of the most distinguished tapestry collections in the United States, with 41 works. The Meeting of Dante and Virgil is among the most significant Renaissance works in Mia’s collection and is considered the most important Italian Renaissance tapestry in the United States. The tapestry measures 5.3 meters, which is equivalent to 17.4 feet.
The Florentine workshop that produced the tapestry was founded in 1545 by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, who sought to rival the celebrated weaving centers of Brussels. He recruited Jan Rost, a master weaver from Brussels, to establish and oversee production. The tapestry’s design and cartoons were created by the painter Francesco Salviati (1510–1563) between 1546 and 1548, and the work was woven between 1547 and 1549 during the formative years of Medici tapestry production.
TEFAF New York runs from May 15-19 at the Park Avenue Armory.
This Stone Lithograph by Richard Gorman, an artist’s print from an edition of 40, is at the May Contemporary Curated online art auction by Lismore based Lot 100 with an estimate of €600-800. The auction offers art by Irish Australian artist John Kelly, Pauline Bewick, Julianne Guinee, Louis le Brocquy, Katherine Boucher Beug, Peter Murray, Felim Egan, Charles Tyrrell and two screenprints by Andy Warhol of Marilyn Monroe among a selection of 93 lots. The auction is live online until May 12.
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) – Number 7A, 1948 at Christie’s
So far in 2026 the rebound in the art market which began in the second half of last year has continued. In a world full of new uncertainties the big New York art sales this month look set to continue the trend. In a market where the premium is on rarity and quality there are some amazing offerings.
In the late 1940’s Jackson Pollock pioneered a revolutionary painting style that was utterly baffling to most people. Nowadays the art of ‘Jack the Dripper’ is unbuyable unless you happen to be one of the growing global band of billionaires – whose numbers now approach 4,000 from a figure of just 140 in 1987. The largest example of Jackson Pollock’s monumental drip paintings left in private hands, Number 7A, 1948 – from the collection of legendary Condé Nast co-owner S I Newhouse – is at Christie’s on May 18.
The first and only large scale drip painting ever to appear at auction was last seen at an exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 1977.
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957) – Danaïde, 1913 at Christie’s.
Another great rarity from the S I Newhouse collection is Danaïde, conceived and cast in 1913 by Constantin Brancusi. Of the six bronzes cast of this model four are held in institutional collections, the Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tate London and Kunst Museum, Winterthur. This sculpture is the only gilded example left in private hands.
Both works are estimated at around $100 million. The Newhouse collection, which includes masterworks by Bacon, Johns, Matisse, Miro, Mondrian, Picasso, Rauschenburg and Warhol, is poised to become only the second collection ever to surpass the $1 billion mark established in 2022 with the sale the collection of Microsoft founder Paul G Allen.
At Sotheby’s on May 14 the collection of financier Robert Mnuchin featuring Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko is expected to make around $130 million. Sotheby’s Modern evening auction on May 19 is headed by Arlequin (Buste) painted by Picasso in 1909 and estimated in the region of $40 million. There are just ten works at this sale, which offers art by Georgia O’Keeffe, Wassily Kandinsky, Degas, Monet and Matisse.
Elizabeth Peyton (b1965) – Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) at Sotheby’s.
With masterworks from the last 80 years the Now and Contemporary evening auction at Sotheby’s in New York on May 14 is led by Basquiat’s Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983). There is art by by Rothko, Fontana and Calder from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg. Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) December 1995 and dated 1996 by Elizabeth Peyton captures Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher kissing his brother Noel on the cheek. By appropriating a photograph from two concerts at Earl’s Court in London in November 1995 at the height of their fame she contrasts their strained relationship, unprecedented success with their care and appreciation as siblings, their glories with their faults. The estimate is $1.5 million – $2 million.
Later last year it became apparent that major collectors are becoming more picky. The upcoming New York sales offer lots of rich pickings for the super rich.
Interior of Reidy’s Wine Vault bar to be sold by Lynes and Lynes.
Reidy’s Wine Vaults in Cork or the Black Cat in Kilkenny? Against a background where the market for collectibles is performing strongly contents from these popular and now closed watering holes will come up at sales by Aidan Foley and Lynes and Lynes next week.
Aidan Foley will hold three days of online sales with antiques, silver, art, automobilia and pub memorabilia on May 4, 5 and 6 at 6 pm each day. Along with some contents from Kilkenny’s Black Cat bar on Black Mill St. in Kilkenny there is art by Mabel Young, Carol Ann Waldron, Ivan Sutton, Markey Robinson and Sean Keating. The auction has a good selection of vintage forecourt signs, enamel signs, modern dealership signs and paraphernalia like oil cans which are also in strong demand. The auction is on view in Doneraile over this Bank Holiday weekend.
The fine interior bar fittings from Reidy’s Wine Vault at Lancaster Quay in Cork, which has been sold and is to become a restaurant, will come under the hammer as one lot at a sale by Denis Lynes on May 9. The bar counter, which measures over 29′ in length, back bar, dividers, cabinets and light fittings is estimated at €70,000-€120,000. There will be viewing on the premises on May 6 from 10 am to 5 pm. In March the complete fittings from the West End Bar in Portadown, one of the oldest licensed premises in Co. Armagh, made a hammer price of €120,000 at an auction by Victor Mee.
Mabel Young (1889-1974) – A Cottage in a landscape at Aidan Foley’s sale. UPDATE: THIS MADE 900 AT HAMMER
Gustav Klimt – Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsoványi) from 1902
This ethereal portrait by Gustav Klimt from the Lewis Collection – the most valuable single collection ever offered in London – will come under the hammer at Sotheby’s in June. Gertrud Loew was a member of fin-de-siècle Viennese society, later known by her married name Gertha Felsoványi, who was aged 19 when this portrait was painted. It is estimated at £20-£30 million. Assembled over decades by Joe Lewis, former owner of Tottenham Hotspur, and his daughter Vivienne, many of the works in the collection have been exhibited in major museums across the globe. There is art by Egon Schiele, Amadeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, Gustav Caillebotte, Lucian Freud, Chaim Soutine and Picasso in a collection estimated to make in the region of £150 million.
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. From Klimt, Schiele and Modigliani to Caillebotte, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bacon and Freud, the Lewis Collection captures the radical inventiveness of the leading artists of the 20th century, and includes some of the greatest works of modern figurative painting to remain in private hands.
The June sale follows the presentation of four School of London masterpieces from the Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s London in March, which doubled their combined low estimate to realise a total of £35.8 million,. It also follows last September’s record-setting sale of the Pauline Karpidas collection, which achieved £101 million to become the highest-value single owner sale ever staged in London.
Highlights will be unveiled at Sotheby’s in New York tomorrow. The auctions will be held on the week of June 22 in London.
FRANCIS BACON – TWO STUDIES FOR SELF-PORTRAIT. (£8 – £12 MILLION).
MID 1960’S MAHOGANY BAR FRONT. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This mid 1960’s mahogany bar front and back, copied from an original Victorian bar, is the top lot at Victor Mee’s April advertising and collectibles online sale on May 30. Lot 552 is complete with two matching 20th century oval Pure Pot Still Power’s advertising mirrors and a large Power’s Whiskey John’s Lane Distillery advertising mirror. It is estimated at €30,000-€60,000. The auction offers 738 lots and the catalogue is online.
A pair of important 18th Century Italian Baroque style giltwood Console Mirrors. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
These 18th century mirrors from Bishopscourt House in Co. Kildare come up as lot 1017 at Fonsie Mealy’s three day Chatsworth Summer Fine Art sale in Castlecomer on May 1. The auction with over 1,300 lots gets underway tomorrow (April 29). The catalogue is online. The mirrors are estimated at €3,000-€4,000.
EILEEN GREY – THE TRANSAT CHAIR IN GREY LEATHER (€4,000-6,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,600 AT HAMMER
Danish, Italian and French designer furniture from the 1950’s, ’60’s and ’70’s will feature at the timed online design sale at de Veres which runs until April 28. The auction offers furniture by designers and makers like Eileen Gray, Arne Jacobsen, Eero Saarinen Ico Parisi and contemporary labels including Ligne Roset, Knoll, Fritz Hansen. There is contemporary Irish art by John Shinnors, Barrie Cooke, Charles Tyrrell, Elizabeth Magill, Felim Egan and others. The sale is on view at de Veres.
FELIM EGAN – BLUE NOTES (€2,000-4,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
A bow brooch set with 11 Colombian emeralds. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
A rare gold and platinum bow design brooch set with 11 Colombian emerald cabochons of varying size, an estate cabinet from Clonmeen House in Banteer and a re-discovered Roderic O’Conor painting exhibited at the Salon des Independents in Paris in 1904 are among the delights at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer fine art sale in Castlecomer on April 29, 30 and May 1.
More than 1,300 lots will come under the hammer, including contents from Clonbrock House, Galway, items once at Castletown and objects from other stately homes in Ireland. There is Georgian and Regency furniture from a commission by Gillows in London for Lord Clonbrock, luxury fashion and jewellery, Irish and international art and a variety of collectibles. An estate cabinet from Clonmeen with numerous pigeon holes was in the collection of Major Stephen Grehan (1895-1972). He fought at the Western Front and at Salonica during World War I and later in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The sale feature more than 450 furniture lots including Gillows furniture from Clonbrock and Castletown. An early rosewood sofa table by Gillows of London and Lancaster dates to around 1801 – the time of the Clonbrock commission – and is estimated at just €1,000-€1,500.
Lot 249 is an Irish 19th century gold cased pocket watch by John Donegan, Dublin and the sale offers a collection of Irish silverware. The auction is on view in Castlecomer from 1.30 pm to 5 pm on April 26 and from 10.30 am to 5 pm on April 27 and 28. The catalogue is online.
An Irish George III estate cabinet from Clonmeen House, Banteer. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,900 AT HAMMER
