Does Irish art have a strong appeal to buyers who don’t have a connection to the island? This is a question that occupies the minds of both buyers and sellers of works by Irish artists, and it doesn’t have a straightforward answer. Arabella Bishop, who ran the Dublin office of Sotheby’s international auctioneers until its closure in December 2024, says that historically the international market for Irish art extended beyond buyers with direct Irish lineage. “One of the great strengths of the global auction houses was their ability to introduce Irish art to collectors who may not have initially been looking for it, placing it alongside big international sales and exposing it to a much broader audience,” says Bishop, who now runs her own art advisory service in Ireland.It is a great pity that dedicated Irish art sales are no longer part of the London auction calendar, she says, as that global exposure was invaluable for the market.Bishop cites landmark single-owner sales – such as those that entered the private collection of Alan and Mary Hobart, founders of the Pyms Gallery, which championed Irish Art in London; Yeats: The Family Collection, A Living Legacy: Irish Art from the Collection of Brian P Burns; and the Smurfit Collection – as demonstrations of how Irish art could attract an international audience when presented on a global stage. Arabella Bishop runs an art advisory service in Ireland Penny Day, head of UK and Ireland for modern British and Irish art at Bonhams, says most Irish art is bought by Irish people living in Ireland or abroad or those of Irish descent.International buyers, according to Day, tend to lean more towards the globally recognised names such as Paul Henry and Jack B Yeats. For example, Henry’s painting The Milkcart sold at Bonhams for £241,700 (€283,300) in 2025. It had an estimate of £120,000-£180,000.A Storm/Gaillshíon by Jack B Yeats (1956) The Milkcart by Paul Henry The paintings of Yeats, Roderic O’Conor and Henry are perceived to be reliable investments as well as aesthetically pleasing art works. Their work dominated the sales of Irish Art at the Modern British and Irish Art sale at Christies in London in March. At that auction, Yeats’s painting from 1946, The Ale House, sold for £63,500 (€74,400) significantly above its estimate of £30,000-£50,000. Similarly, A Storm/Gaillshíon, painted by Yeats in 1956, sold for £165,100 (€193,500); its estimate had been £100,000-£150,000. Meanwhile, Roderic O’Conor’s 1926 painting, Still Life with Fruit, sold for £30,450 (€35,700) when it had an estimate of £15,000-£25,000.There is, however, a small number of artists born in Ireland whose work is considered contemporary on the international art market rather than Irish, per se. Artists such as Sean Scully, who was born in Dublin, grew up in London and moved to New York in 1975, fit firmly into this category. “The market for Sean Scully is certainly international, but his work is usually considered by collectors as outside of the field of ‘Irish art’ and is more commonly offered as ‘contemporary art’ within the auction industry,” says Day. Bishop agrees, adding that highest prices for Scully’s art have been achieved outside of Ireland.Scully is best known for his abstract multicoloured paintings. With studios in New York, London, Germany and France, he has exhibited across the world and was the first western artist to have a career-length retrospective in China. Ballroom by Irish artist Genieve Figgis Genieve Figgis is another Irish artist whose work has been selling well internationally. Figgis, who is represented by Almine Rech, a prominent French art dealer with galleries throughout Europe and in New York and Shanghai, is known for her use of vibrant colours and macabre imagery. She studied at Gorey School of Art and then the National College of Art and Design. Two of her paintings were sold by Phillips International Auction House at their modern and contemporary art auctions in London in 2025. Ballroom, painted in 2014, which had an estimate of £15,000–20,000, sold for £21,930 (€25,700) and Napoleon, painted in 2022, which had an estimate of £20,000 –£30,000, sold for £25,800 (€30,240). Figgis has an exhibition, Drama Club, in Monaco and her show Songs to the Siren was shown in the Model Arts Centre in Sligo from January to March. Michael Craig-Martin's Laverstoke Park Michael Craig-Martin is another Dublin-born artist who has an international following. Craig-Martin moved to the US as a child with his family and studied fine art at Yale School of Art and Architecture. He has lived in Britain since 1966 and was an influential art teacher at Goldsmith College in London during the 1980s.Craig-Martin, often described as a late-20th-century conceptual artist, has created large-scale, intensely coloured paintings and installations. He has exhibited widely throughout Europe and beyond, and retrospectives of his work were held in the Whitechapel Gallery in London (1989), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2006-2007) and the Serpentine Gallery in London (2015).Examples of his work that sold in 2026 include Laverstroke Park, an acrylic on canvas painting in six parts for £101,600 (€119,000) at Christie’s Postwar to Present auction in June 2026. It had an estimate of £80,000-£120,000.Untitled (Steering Wheel) by Craig-Martin, which made a little over its estimate of £10,000-£15,000 at £15,240 (€17,900) was sold at Christie’s auction Beyond Ordinary – Then Now Next Works from the Zabludowicz Collection. arabellabishop.com, christies.com, bonhams.com, phillips.com What did it sell for?The Entrance by William Crozier The Entrance, William CrozierEstimate £8,000 – £12,000 (€9,300 – €14,000)Hammer price £10,240Auction house BonhamsSinister Labryinth by Patrick Hughes Sinister Labyrinth by Patrick HughesEstimate £10,000 – £15,000 (€12,000 – €18,000)Hammer price £21,760 (€25,510)Auction house BonhamsSpring by William Crozier Spring by William CrozierEstimate £10,000-£15,000 (€12,000-€18,000)Hammer price £10,880Auction house BonhamsGeorge II carved giltwood side table George II carved giltwood side tableEstimate £30,000-50,000 (€35,000–€59,000)Hammer price £90,000 (€105,500)Auction house Sworders Auctioneers