Buying and selling art at auction is a fickle business for all concerned. And while collecting the work of well established artists – either alive or dead – is usually a safe bet, there is a certain cohort of art that trades on an appeal that can be fleeting or enduring.The work of French-born, Los Angeles-based artist Thierry Guetta, aka Mr Brainwash, fits in the latter category. Guetta started out as a vintage clothing shop owner who documented the street art scene in the early 2000s. The fact that his cousin was graffiti artist Invader fuelled his cachet and gave him access to the nightly escapades of street artists such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Exit Through the Gift Shop, the documentary about Guetta’s videography of street art and his emerging art practice, directed by street artist Banksy, gave the Frenchman a larger spotlight. It is widely believed (although also disputed) that Banksy encouraged Guetta to stop filming artists and become one himself. And, with a ready-made audience, Guetta’s work – inspired by the pop and street art he had documented – began to attract collectors from around the world. He also worked on commercial projects, designing album covers for Madonna and Rick Ross, and brand designs for Porsche and New Balance. “One minute, Thierry Guetta was a vintage clothes seller obsessively filming the underground world of graffiti with a hand-held camcorder. The next, he was at the centre of one of contemporary art’s strangest success stories,” wrote Nick Sharp of London’s Maddox Gallery.A screen print by Mr Brainwash is now for sale in the Morgan O’Driscoll online art sale, which is already live and ends on Monday, July 20th. Entitled Art Tour and dated 2021, the piece depicts a colourfully dressed young couple looking at the black-and-white (and red) Banksy street art image of a girl reaching for a heart-shaped balloon (€2,000-€3,000).The Banksy image, entitled Girl with Balloon, depicted in the Mr Brainwash screen print is one of Banksy’s best-known pieces. It first appeared as a stencil mural on a shop wall in London’s Shoreditch area and under Waterloo Bridge on the city’s South Bank with the phrase: There is Always Hope. In 2004, Banksy released signed and unsigned limited-edition prints of the image which now often sell at auction for more than €100,000. In October 2018, a framed print of Girl with Balloon made global headlines when, at the exact point of the sale for more than £1 million at the live Sotheby’s auction, a mechanical shredder built into the frame shredded half of the piece into ribbons. The buyer chose to keep the shredded work and it was resold at auction for £18.5 million in 2021. Over the years Banksy created several other murals and prints based on the Girl with the Balloon image in key locations around the world, so Guetta’s use of it in his work only adds to its exposure.The Castle of Foixa, Emporda, Spain by Martin Mooney Bring in the Nets by Nano Reid The Morgan O’Driscoll art auction also includes works by many Irish artists, such as Martin Mooney’s The Castle of Foixa, Emporda, Spain (€4,000-€6,000), Nano Reid’s Bring in the Nets (€1,000-€1,500) and Sean McSweeney’s Sea Fields (€600-€900).School of HiberniaThe School of Hibernia by Na Cailleacha Meanwhile, the collective of older female creatives called Na Cailleacha (cailleach means witch, divine hag or wise woman in Irish) and the Contemporary Irish Art Society have recently presented the National College of Ireland with a print of The School of Hibernia to mark the college’s 75th anniversary of promoting gender equality.The limited-edition print by Ros Kavanagh features 41 high-profile women from all walks of life – science, art, sports, politics and activism – in an all-female version of Raphael’s School of Athens staged in the Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin in 2024. Women depicted include former president Mary Robinson, accessibility activist and Tilting the Lense chief executive Sinéad Burke and writer Melatu Uche Okorie.The original Raphael fresco was a key piece of European Renaissance art depicting only men, including classical philosophers, mathematicians and scientists such as Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes. The School of Hibernia was created to highlight the significant role of women in society. A large print will feature in Vision, an exhibition of contemporary photography from EU member states which opens at Farmleigh Gallery on July 23rd. Six of the 10 limited edition prints are still for sale at €6,500 each. European worksRembrandt to Matisse – a Celebration of European Works on Paper, also held to coincide with Ireland’s hosting of the EU presidency, opens in the Print Gallery at the National Gallery of Ireland today, Saturday July 18th, and continues until December 6th. It includes drawings, prints, watercolours and photographs from the National Gallery’s collection. And a violin once owned by Irish poet, William Butler Yeats was sold at an auction in England earlier this week. The early-19th-century instrument was made by French violin maker Didler Nicolas l’aîné in the Mirecourt School in Cremona, the northern Italian city renowned for its violin-making heritage. Early-19th-Century violin owned by WB Yeats Sold under the hammer by Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers in Co Kilkenny in 2017 for €4,500 (€5,625 with fees) to Chapel Violins violinmakers in Balderton, England, it had an estimate of £6,000-£8,000 at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Gloucestershire on Wednesday. It sold for £5,000 (€5,894). morganodriscoll.com; nacailleacha.weebly.com; dominicwinter.co.uk; nationalgallery.ie; farmleigh.ie What did it sell for?Red Vase (12/30) by Jane O’Malley Red Vase, Jane O’MalleyEstimate: €300-€500Hammer price: €360Auction house: deVeresMadonna of the Flowers by Francis Kelly Madonna of the Flowers, Francis KellyEstimate: €1,400-€1,800Hammer price: Not soldAuction house: deVeresThe Promenade – Skerries Harbour by Patrick Leonard The Promenade – Skerries Harbour, Patrick LeonardEstimate: €1,000-€1,500Hammer price: Not soldAuction house: deVeresZonca Voghera table lamps Zonca Voghera table lampsEstimate: €300-€500Hammer price: €260Auction house: deVeres