The times we lived in

Going, going, gone Published September 29th, 1989 Photograph by Paddy Whelan

T his edition of the magazine has probably given you all kinds of constructive ideas about downsizing, saving, living within your means and all the rest of it.

But if all else fails, you may have to resort to the cash in the attic strategy.

It does happen. People have unearthed priceless artworks in the most unexpected of places. It’s not so long since Caravaggio’s Taking of Christ turned up in a Jesuit diningroom; and a painting by Paul Henry, The Bog Road, was “discovered” on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow programme two years ago. It was valued at €45,000.

In the art world, of course, everything is relative. And in Ireland, massive prices being paid for paintings is a relatively recent phenomenon. Our photo captures what has been described as the moment the Irish art market exploded: the sale of Jack Butler Yeats’s Harvest Moon at James Adam and Sons in September 1989.

Out of the blue, the painting made a record price: it was bought by Michael Smurfit for £280,000.

Maybe that’s why the two young male assistants to auctioneer Brian Coyle appear so uniformly gobsmacked. The young woman on the right of the picture has her arms folded – is she just in shock, or having some subliminal premonition of the boom-and-bust to come? – while the auctioneer has his hand raised in what looks, from our sadder, wiser perspective, like a gesture of warning.

But if you do find a long-lost Yeats in your attic, you may well be raising your arm in triumph – as a millionaire. The Wild Ones was sold in 1999 for €1,233,000. As recently as September last year, A Fair Day, Mayo also made a million at Adam’s.

And that Paul Henry landscape, valued on the Antiques Roadshow at €45,000, fetched a healthy €73,000. Now, what’s that sticking out from behind the dodgy bargain-basement printer and the bag of too-tight jeans . . . ?

[ irishtimes.com/archive ]