Seán FitzPatrick cartoon to be sold at auction

The original artwork for an Irish Times cartoon of Anglo Irish Bank's Seán FitzPatrick has turned up in a fine art auction and will be sold next month.

The image of the banker in a racing car by artist David Rooney was published in the business pages of the newspaper at the height of the Celtic Tiger.

Mr Rooney sold the original artwork which an unnamed vendor has now consigned to Sheppard’s Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois.

It will go under the hammer on March 2nd with an estimate of between €200 and €300.

The auction will be carried live on the internet and online and telephone bidding is available.

The black-and-white pen-and-ink drawing entitled "Pole Position" depicts Mr FitzPatrick as a Formula One driver in an Anglo Irish Bank branded racing car numbered one with rival drivers in AIB and Bank of Ireland branded racing cars trailing in his wake.

The artist said he could not remember who had bought the original artwork of “Mr Fitzpatrick in his Anglo heyday”.

Auctioneer Michael Sheppard said "this iconic image, originally commissioned by The Irish Times, encapsulates the boom years of the Celtic Tiger".

He said it was already attracting “broad interest from prospective bidders in Ireland and beyond”.

Mr Rooney has more recently been working with the Royal Irish Academy and the OPW illustrating the book, 1916 – Portraits and Lives.

His 42 original portraits for that project are now part of the State collection and will soon find a home in a new exhibition space in Kilmainham Gaol.