April 30th: Morgan O'Driscoll Auctioneers, Irish Art sale, Radisson Blu Hotel, Cork. Leenane, Connemara by James Humbert Craig €9,800 (€6,000-9,000); Towards the Opera House, Montpellier, France by Arthur K Maderson, €9,200 (€10,000-15,000); In The West of Ireland by Grace Henry, €8,200 (€7,000-10,000); Bog Scene (watercolour) by Percy French €7,600 (€5,000-7,000); Evening: Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, 1945 by Stanley Royle, €6,700 (€8,000-10,000); Evening Light, Lake Morraine, 1939 by Stanley Royle, €6,700 (€7,500-10,000).
May 1st and 2nd:Sheppard's, Durrow, Co Laois. Chippendale-style gilt-framed over-mantel mirror €11,000 (€5,000-8,000); Still Life of Flowers and an Oriental Fan (oil-on-canvas) by Germain Ribot €10,500 (€9,000-12,000); a pair of late 19th-century Dublin leather-upholstered mahogany chairs, €7,500 (€5,000-8,000); a 19th-century marble sculpture of Christopher Columbus by V Matteoni, €7,000 (€8,000-12,000); a Second Period floral painted Belleek teapot €3,700 (€300-500); an oval miniature portrait of Rev William Bruce (1757–1841), painted on ivory, in a rose-gold frame containing a lock of his hair €1,650 (€800-1,200).
May 2nd:Adam's, 26 St Stephen's Green, single-artist auction of works by Seán O'Sullivan. The Four Courts, Under Snow (oil-on-board) €8,000 (€7,000-10,000); St Audeons Under Snow (oil-on-board) €6,700 (€5,000-6,000); Brian Ó Nualláin (aka Myles na gGopaleen/Flann OBrien) seated at a bar counter (charcoal and white chalk) €6,000 (€1,500-2,000); Luttrellstown (oil-on-board) €5,200 (€3,000-5,000); Paul Landowskis Studio, Paris (oil-on-board) €4,800 (€6,000-10,000); Portrait of RM Smyllie, Editor Irish Times 1934-54 (Lithograph) €400 (€200-300); The Sailor and the Mermaids (Lithograph) €150 (€200-300).
May 8th:Christie's, New York. Orange, Red, Yellow (oil-on-canvas) by American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) sold for €86.9 million (€67.1 million) – a new record for post-war and contemporary work sold at auction.
