Art auction raises €60,000: Donated works raise funds for artist

AN ESTIMATED €60,000 was raised at a benefit auction yesterday for artist Alexandra Trotsenko whose three fingers were cut off during a burglary in Dublin in 2009.

The “Art for Alexandra” auction was held by Adams Blackrock fine arts auctioneers at the local Methodist hall. For sale were 198 items donated by other artists and from private collections. More had been donated but “we couldn’t put in more”, said Martina Noonan of Adams Blackrock.

Prior to the auction Ms Trotsenko thanked everyone for attending and the staff at the Mater hospital “who saved my life”.

The highest price paid was €5,250 for a Paddy Campbell bronze La Violinista. It was donated by the artist. Works donated by other artists included a Gibson Les Paul model electric guitar by Rasher (Mark Kavanagh) with case, which went for €2,600, and a Bobby Ballagh print of Liberty on the Barricades, which sold for €1,500.

An autumn landscape Leaf Linesby broadcaster Joe Duffy, one of the people behind the auction, sold for €620. It had been expected to fetch between €200 and €400.

Ms Trotsenko, in her 30s, is from Russia and is married to an Irishman. She had an exhibition of her work at St Stephen’s Green in 2006 and has illustrated a children’s book. She was planning to illustrate another before the attack.

James Kenny, of Prospect Hill, Finglas, Dublin, was jailed for 16 years on November 1st for the attack, which Judge Tony Hunt described as “barbaric”. Ms Trotsenko is unable to hold a pencil in her right hand as her ring finger was cut off in the attack and her other fingers, except her middle finger, were left short.

Prompted by reports of the court case, Sheila Simms rang Joe Duffy on RTÉ Radio One's Livelineearlier this month suggesting that something should be done "about the travesty visited on Alexandra" as Duffy put it yesterday. This was quickly followed by a call in support by Declan McGonagle, director of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.

The first artist to make a donation was Ken Bolger who drove from Ballyferriter, Co Kerry, with his Celtic Figures, a patina in bronze, which sold for €360.

A painting of Murphy’s brewery by Cork-based Dublin artist John Adams was bought in advance of the auction by Heineken Ireland for €3,000.