Your columnist is no art expert, though he likes recycling his favourite line of criticism occasionally. (When the King of France viewed Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa, he remarked: “M. Géricault, your shipwreck is no disaster.” Kudos to anyone who can mail me the name of the band which used Géricault’s painting on an album cover.)

Peter Murray wonders why, in an eclectic collection of writers’ responses to works on show at the National Gallery the majority of contributors chose pieces that allowed them avoid eye-to-eye contact with the subject.

Irish authors have taken pieces in the National Gallery as inspiration for prose and poetry, writes Peter Murray

AN ART deco armchair by Irish designer Eileen Gray smashed records and topped sales on day two of the Yves Saint Laurent art auction yesterday, becoming the most expensive 20th century piece of furniture ever.