Strong demand continued at Whyte’s Irish & International Art auction last night. The sale attracted nearly 500 bidders. 450 were on-line and the rest were on the telephone or had left absentee bids.

The top price was €120,000 for a Paul Henry oil, twice the pre-sale estimate. A still life by the artist’s first wife Grace Henry also exceeded expectations, with ‘Marigolds’ fetching €8,000, three times the pre-sale guide. A unique John Behan sculpture ‘Dancing Rabbis’ (illstrated) fetched over three times the low estimate, selling for €16,500, while Anthony Scott’s ‘Horse Grazing’ sold for €20,000 against an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. Works by Daniel O’Neill, William Henry Bartlett, Susan ‘Lily’ Yeats and others also achieved strong prices.

Total gross sales were close to €1,000,000 with 85% of lots sold.