Le Brocquy art fails to find buyers as Irish lots slump at Sotheby’s

The boom buyers have vanished and lovers of more expensive Irish art can no longer afford it.

Less than 15 hours after Francis Bacon’s Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror made $44.8m (€34.6m) at Sotheby’s in New York, half of the Irish lots on offer failed to find buyers at Sotheby’s in London yesterday.

William Orpen’s scorching swagger portrait of Rosie, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort sold for £577,250 (€717,116). It was the top lot in what used to be Sotheby’s annual Irish art sale, re-designated this year as an auction of British and Irish art.