The art market

Francis Bacon made art market history in New York this week when his Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142,405,000 at Christie's in New York to become the most valuable painting ever sold at auction.

The international contemporary market has never been hotter. Overall Christie's sale in New York on Tuesday night achieved $691,583,000 – the highest auction total in art market history. This surpassed the single auction record of $495 million set last May.

Matters are not so rosy in Ireland and we need to put more time and effort into promoting our contemporary artists on the international stage. Given that post 1945 art serves as a substitute for Impressionist and early 20th century art - so much of which has vanished into collections --this problem is urgent.