A feature of this lockdown year from an art perspective has been the series of highly successful auctions with records been broken and many artists achieving their best prices since the boom years. Paul Henry has done particularly well at both Adam’s and Whyte’s. The latter auction house claimed a world record for the €420,000 paid for Henry’s A Sunny Day in Connemara last Monday. This achievement was subsequently recorded in the Irish Times in its Saturday art section. However, it’s not quite true. In 2002 Henry’s The Lobster Fisher sold for €423,497 at Christie’s. While the hammer price was a mere £265,000 the sterling/euro rate that prevailed (the spot price at the moment of sale) produced this world record in Euros. The only way that Whyte’s can claim a record is to convert its €420,000 into Sterling at current rates - which are much for favorable to the Euro. That will yield a price of £381,164 - a world record. As Whyte’s are an Irish auction house who deal in Euros - it should qualify its claims. Also, the Irish Times, our paper of record should follow suit. As we’re being pedantic, the estimate quoted by the Irish Times is also inaccurate: it was €150,000 to €200,000 and not €150,000 to €250,000. This was clearly a slip of the pen by the auction house that was then repeated by the Irish Times. The Artprice web site (www.artprice.com) is a very reliable guide to the world art market so if you want Henry’s painting to be a world record use its Sterling filter. If you use the Euro filter it falls a few grand short. Just saying.
