Working Life: You don’t know whose work you are buying, but it could be a real prize

Lucinda Hall, incognito art curator at the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation

Lucinda Hall, incognito art curator at the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.

“The charity’s founder, the late Jonathan Irwin, was a friend of my husband’s, and he was constantly looking at ways to raise money to fund vital in-home nursing and respite care for severely ill children and their families, based on his own experience.

“The idea for the incognito art sale came from my hairdresser, Ian. Every year, he disappeared to London for a few days in October. When I asked why, he said, ‘I camp with my son for two nights near the Royal College of Art in Kensington, for the possibility of buying a painting by a famous artist’. The college ran an annual mystery art sale and, for £30 (€36), you had a shot at a postcard-sized painting by someone famous. It was so popular, people camped out.