Forbes.com
With the rise of the Celtic Tiger, bidding on arts and antiques has become big business.

Time was, anyone seeking to understand the Irish might check out a betting parlor. But with the Celtic Tiger roaring onwards, things have changed. Hungry for icons of their disappearing old culture and flush with cash, increasing numbers of the Irish are prowling art and antique auctions with the kind of avidity that was once restricted to Paddy Power’s bookmakers.

The biggest art auction houses are within whiskers of each other in central Dublin—Whyte’s, de Veres and Adam’s. On a recent evening at Adam’s, nestled beside St. Stephen’s Green, the competition was all New Irish as the hammer began to fall. In the back sat a white-mustachioed businessman bearing a remarkable resemblance to Professor Marvel from The Wizard of Oz. Decked out in a silver tie and bespoke suit, the man kept his hands on his lap. When doing business in Ireland, you have to watch people’s eyes—closely. The country boasts more billionaires per capita than America, Saudia Arabia and the U.K., yet trading for increasingly coveted bits of local heritage is still done with stealth.

The big Irish fish are cruising for ever-bigger cultural bait. For example, in November of last year, de Veres sold a work by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957), brother of the poet William and the country’s most highly valued painter, for an Irish-record-setting $1 million. It depicted a black bird bathing in the land of Tír na Nóg—the ethereal place Gaels go after closing time—and might have fetched less than $50,000 about 20 years ago.

Posted: 06|6|06 at 8:32 am. Filed under: Auction News.