Unseen Yeats painting among those to be auctioned

Part of a rediscovered private art collection including unseen paintings by Jack B Yeats and Louis le Brocquy will be auctioned tonight.

Owned by the late Cork obstetrician Dr JB Kearney, it includes both paintings and sculptures and has been hidden away for 30 years.

Only known about by a handful of people, the full collection worth more than €1.5m is going under the hammer at Adam's in Dublin in two separate auctions, today and next Tuesday.

Tonight's highlights include 'Torso', an oil painting by le Brocquy, expected to fetch between €120,000-180,000, 'The Turf Gatherer' by Paul Henry, valued at €150,000-250,000 and 'The Tinker's Child' by Yeats, with a pre-sale estimate of €250,000-350,000.

Dr Kearney was an active patron of the arts in his lifetime, quietly collecting contemporary Irish and international art over the years.

He provided financial support to a number of up-and-coming artists, many of whom he knew personally.

He was a member of the Arts Council of Ireland, past president of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland and on the organising committee for the Cork ROSC exhibitions.

In addition to the previously unseen and valued Kearney collection of Irish Art, the sale also comprises more than 120 lots of important Irish art.

These range from 18th Century portraiture to 21st Century contemporary art.

There will also be 12 literature lots included in this sale.

Of particular interest is a first edition of 'Ulysses' by James Joyce, published 1922, which is expected to fetch between €20,000-25,000.

A very rare 18th Century portrait of Saint Oliver Plunkett is an unusual curiosity highlight of the auction, estimated at €3,000-5,000.

The auction begins at 6pm in the James Adam Salerooms, St Stephen's Green.