Fancy a view of Paul Henry's Connemara hills or a Jack B Yeats rendition of a day at the races to hang above the fireplace?

Sadly, the prices commanded by these Irish artists mean such delights are out of most people's reach. However, there is likely to be no shortage of bidders for Cottages by a Lough (estimate £50,000-£70,000 or €73,165- €102,430) or Strand Races (£70,000-£100,000) when a range of paintings by Ireland's greatest artists goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in London for the 10th anniversary Irish sale today.

Since the first such sale in 1995, Sotheby's has sold more than £40 million worth of Irish art and, according to Henry Wyndham, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, broadened "what was essentially a Dublin-based market into a fully international arena".

The highest price ever paid for an Irish painting at auction, £1,983,500, was achieved by Sotheby's in 2001 for William Orpen's Portrait of Gardenia St George with Riding Crop.

Of the top 10 prices achieved by Sotheby's for Irish paintings, Yeats accounts for five, Orpen three, and Sir John Lavery and Louis Le Brocquy one apiece.

On this occasion, most attention will focus on Roderic O'Connor (1860-1940), whose pictures have attracted the highest estimates. Three of his "most representative works" are included: La Lisière du Bois (£400,000- £600,000), L'Approche de Lezaven, Pont-Aven (£300,000- £400,000), and Bretonne (£300,000-£500,000). Much more affordable is The Communicant (£30,000- £40,000).

Other highlights are likely to include "five superbly serene landscapes and garden scenes" by Lavery, especially Convalescence (In the Apple Orchard) estimated at £300,000-£400,000.

Are paintings in general, and Irish art in particular, a good investment?

Charles Saatchi, one of the world's leading art collectors, has begun to sell some of his collection of installation art and sculpture and put the rest into storage. He is instead promoting painting, which many in the "fashionable" art world had stupidly declared to be a redundant art form.

An ever-increasing circle of rich Irish investors is chasing a finite stock of works by top-tier artists such as Orpen, Lavery and Yeats. So will prices for these artists continue to rise?

Supply and demand will dictate prices, especially in London salesrooms where Irish private and trade buyers compete with international bidders.

But consider this. In 1973, a Yeats's A Palace, which had hung for many years in the dining room of Jammet's restaurant, was sold for £15,000 - at that time a staggering price - at James Adam in Dublin. One of the Yeats pictures in Sotheby's sale, Lingering Sun, O'Connell Bridge, Dublin is estimated at £300,000-£500,000.

Sales like this provide an opportunity to try to identify which artists are still "affordable" but may become the future "old masters" of Irish art and might be worth considering from a long-term investment perspective.

West of Ireland scenes remain hugely popular and, while Paul Henry's prices have rocketed, the sale offers less pricey views of the area by artists such as Markey Robinson and Harry Kernoff.

Some experts believe that it might be wise to buy work by artists with broad international appeal, which would survive any downturn in the Irish economy. For example, the abstract, contemporary paintings by Irish-born, New York-based Seán Scully are often bought by people with no Irish connections and are considered to be potentially good investments. His Untitled carries an estimate of £25,000-£30,000.

But the golden rules apply: Buy a painting you love at first sight, want to look at every day and, most importantly, can afford.