“The little bit of material prosperity has ruined them.”
– Michael Collins’s (pictured) verdict on the Irish people, from a letter he wrote in 1916, was revealed when the letter was auctioned in April.
“The old adage that Irish paintings ‘do better in London’ is wrong. The market for Irish pictures is in Ireland.”
– Rory Guthrie, director of de Veres fine art auctioneers in Kildare Street, Dublin
“I’m thrilled at the success of my wine auction through Christie’s and glad all the wines have found new homes. I’d love to get in touch with whoever bought the Mouton collection to see if they gain as much pleasure as I did from collecting it.”
– Irish singer/songwriter Chris de Burgh (pictured above right) after “a selection of rarities” from his private cellar sold for £345,517
“If you are ever tempted to invest in sunken treasure, there’s just one thing to do. Take all your money you would invest, in banknotes, and go out on a boat with a bunch of naked chicks. Take a whole bunch of booze and have a party. And when the wind starts blowing get the money and throw it in the air and let it blow into the sea.”
– Robert Marx, a salvage expert in Florida
“There was a time when almost every middle-class lady in the country could play the piano and paint in watercolour.”
– Martin Gayford, English art critic
“People would rather have art or gold instead of paper money.”
– Eli Broad, a billionaire American art collector
“Art for the masses, not the upper classes.”
– Occupy Wall Street protestors yelling as Sotheby’s clients who arrived in limousines to attend an auction of contemporary art in New York
“Being an art buyer these days is comprehensively and indisputably vulgar. It is the sport of the euro-trashy, hedge-fundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oligarchs and oil-igarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard.”
– Charles Saatchi, England’s best-known art collector
“When gentlemen buy pictures of pretty ladies without consulting their wives, they often have to return them”
– Dublin fine art auctioneer Ian Whyte
