Startling fall in prices for Louis le Brocquy paintings

Three paintings by Louis le Brocquy, which last changed hands at auction in Dublin in 2006, have fallen dramatically in value by two-thirds.

They went back under the hammer – eight years later – at Sotheby’s in London last week and achieved just a fraction of their previous prices.

The results represent a spectacular drop in value for work by the artist, who died in 2012. Their combined price in 2006 – when all three were sold at a joint Adam's/Bonhams auction in Dublin was €1.65 million. Last week however the paintings sold for a total of just €554,000.

The top lot, a 1946 painting inspired by the artist's observation of Travellers in Co Offaly, an oil-on-board, titled Sick Tinker Child sold for £266,500 (€336,000) in London. The same painting sold for €963,000 in 2006 in Dublin.

An oil-on-canvas, dated 1984 and titled Fantail Pigeons, sold for £98,500 (€124,000). The price in Dublin in 2006 was €329,000.

An oil-on-canvas, dated 1981, titled Image of WB Yeats, sold for £74,500 (€94,000). The price in Dublin was €364,000.

Le Brocquy, who died aged 95 two years ago, was one of late 20th-century Ireland’s best-known artists.

During a long career, he produced a vast output of watercolours, oil paintings, tapestries and multiple limited-edition lithograph prints.

Since the economic crisis of 2008, Irish art prices – particularly for “modern” art – have plummeted and le Brocquy’s paintings have been among the worst affected.

Collectors who bought his paintings– and other Irish art – for investment purposes during the final days of the Celtic Tiger have now experienced price drops of 70 per cent – as bad as the worst falls in the property market.

However, unlike Dublin house prices, there is no sign of any likely return to 2006 levels.

One leading Dublin art auctioneer, Rory Guthrie of de Veres, said last week: "Prices for Louis le Brocquy show no signs of recovery" – which is putting it mildly.

Sotheby's also sold Sir William Orpen's Portrait of Vivien St George for £134,500 – well above the estimate (£60,000- £80,000), and The Fishing Fleet, County Galway by Paul Henry for £98,500 (estimate £80,000- £120,000).