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FEAR OF a bidding war leading to an astronomical price may have prevented the sale of a chair made by the Irish designer Eileen Gray which failed to sell at a Christie’s auction in New York on Tuesday night.

Jennifer Goff, the curator of furniture at the National Museum of Ireland, said yesterday that potential bidders may have been deterred by fear and trepidation of a bidding war in light of last year’s sale of another chair by Eileen Gray for “astronomical money”. The designer’s leather armchair – known as the Fauteil aux Dragons (the Dragons’ Chair) – sold for €21.9 million in Paris and set a world record price for 20th century furniture. It had belonged to the late designer Yves Saint Laurent.