IT TOOK an image of a former Fianna Fáil taoiseach to briefly buck recessionary trends last night as a Co Laois man beat off strong competition to win a €7,000 bidding war for a portrait of the late Charles J Haughey.
The 1995 painting by Rossa Nolan depicts Mr Haughey at the helm of his yacht, The Celtic Mist, as it sails away from Dingle harbour in Co Kerry towards his beloved Inishvickillane Island.
The portrait, which was offered for €1,500, was one of about 100 lots sold as part of an auction of art from Mr Haughey’s Abbeville home in Kinsealy, Co Dublin. The paintings were put up for sale as his widow Maureen has moved to a smaller house since his death.
The buyer, a Portarlington man who wished to remain anonymous for fear of “being shot” when he got home, said the image had “sentimental” value, but that he was not sure what to do with it yet. “It was his painting and it’s something my [late] father would have wanted,” he said. “It means something to me anyway . . . He was a bit of a rogue, but he’s one of the most important characters in the history of Ireland.
“He was good to Portarlington. He was good to our town when we were in recession in the 1980s.”
Over 100 commission and telephone bidders also registered prior to the sale at James Adam’s auction house on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, with the collection drawing attention from Ireland, the UK, the US, France and as far afield as Australia.
The lots consisted mainly of graphic works by artists such as Patrick Hickey, Maria Simmonds-Gooding and Louis le Brocquy, as well as paintings of the Co Kerry landscape and busts of Mr Haughey and the former US president John F Kennedy.
“If this is a reflection on his entire collection it would suggest he liked a very eclectic mix,” Adam’s director David Britton said. “They are some quite interesting pieces that show the various facets of the man’s life.”
