The art world is a wide and varied terrain but not many connoisseurs would have assumed a close link between Youghal’s 1980’s landfill site, Sir Walter Raleigh’s former home at Myrtle Grove and Sotheby’s of New York! Report Christy Parker Photo: Michael Hussey e mail news@youghalonline.com

According to a story just surfaced in the Sunday Times, a painting discovered at the rat-infested dump in 1987 has just been withdrawn from auction in the American capital, following intervention by Simon Murray, current proprietor of Myrtle Grove and great-great-grandson of Sir Henry Arthur Blake, a British colonial administrator and former Governor of Hong Kong, who retired there in the late 19th century.The painting, Children Under a Palm Tree, is a watercolour by renowned American artist Winslow Homer and depicts Sir Henry’s three children seated on a couch. An English tourist, fishing in the area, discovered it at the dump in 1987, in the wake of a series of robberies at Myrtle Grove during the mid-1980s. Last year the BBC’s Antique Road Show valued the painting at €40,000 -and more if restored. The fisherman’s daughter consigned it to Sotheby’s, where it carried a reserve price of approximately €110,000. Then, two days before a scheduled May 21st auction, Simon’s mother, Shirley Rountree, with whom he shares Myrtle Grove, discovered the impending sale and had it stopped.

Murray, who works as a lawyer in London, is said to be “disappointed” that Sotheby’s had not become aware of the painting’s history. Sotheby’s insists it carried out “extensive diligence.”

Interestingly, neither Mr Murray nor his mother had been aware that what they now call “our painting” was missing! “The fact that this portfolio of paintings was taken was clearly missed,” Murray has said and adds that his family are partial to providing a ‘finder’s fee’ by way of consolation to the fisherman’s family.

The BBC refuses to name the fisherman who had the painting evaluated, while Sotheby’s says it has still not received documentary evidence of the “oral” claim. One senses a row looming.

Meanwhile the painting is now on the Art Loss Register and cannot be sold in good faith. Displaying admirable virtue, Art Loss Register chairman Julian Radcliffe says “Removing something from a skip or a rubbish dump is theft. It should have been brought to the gardai or the local council.” Well at least it was found -how many Picasso’s and Monet’s have been recycled out there since they upgraded the place?!