The collection includes works by Irish artists such as Jack B Yeats, John Lavery, Roderic O’Conor, Mary Swanzy and Walter Osborne, some valued at up to €1 million. Photograph: Bryan O’BrienFormer supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne and his wife Mary are selling part of their personal art collection in an exhibition set to generate millions in sales.
Two works which experts believe will attract enormous interest from collectors were inspired by momentous events in 20th century-Ireland – the Bloody Sunday massacre in Croke Park in 1920 and the 1922 funeral of revolutionary hero Collins. Yeats’s Singing The Dark Rosaleen will be offered for sale in the region of €1 million and depicts an impromptu performance of the patriotic poem My Dark Rosaleen by two middle-aged men and a fiddle player in the middle of the crowd at Croke Park.
His epic work – one of three featured in the Dunnes’ collection – is widely regarded as an authentic snapshot of the funeral and was painted during the service.