Well ahead of any possible share flotation, members of the public will be given an opportunity to buy part of Aer Lingus later this month. The airline has decided to realise some of its assets by selling 25 paintings from the company art collection. These have been handed over to Dublin auctioneer John de Vere White and will be offered at the RHA Gallagher Gallery on November 20th when they are expected to make in the region of £500,000 (€635,000).

Visitors to Dublin Airport or Aer Lingus's various offices need not worry about encountering empty spaces on any walls. According to a company spokesman, in recent years only two of the pictures were on display, both of them in the chairman's office. The remainder, he explained, had been in storage and this was one reason why the group was now being sold as part of Aer Lingus's efforts to raise additional revenue.

One of the pictures recently removed from the chairman's gaze is also both the longest-owned by the organisation and likely to be the highest earner at auction. Jack B Yeats's By Merrion Strand, which dates from 1929 and shows a woman standing before an expanse of the south Dublin coastline, was acquired by Aer Lingus in 1940, just four years after the company had been founded. According to company lore, it was spotted in London by a member of staff who left a £5 deposit on the painting. The work is expected to fetch £250,000-£350,000.

Two pictures by Nathaniel Hone also have reasonably strong pre-sale estimates, Children on the Rocks valued at £25,000-£35,000 and Cattle in a Field at Malahide believed to be worth £10,000-£15,000. Other artists represented in the Aer Lingus collection being sold include Louis Le Brocquy, Patrick Collins, Norah McGuinness, Gerard Dillon and George Campbell.