A selection from the late Tony Ryan’s fine art collection at Lyons Demesne in Kildare will go under the hammer at Christie’s in July
ONE OF Ireland’s finest and most valuable private collections of art and antiques is to be broken up and partially sold at auction in London. Christie’s will sell paintings, sculpture, furniture and tapestries from the estate of the late Dr Tony Ryan, founder of Ryanair, in July.
The international fine art auctioneers said a selection of superb artworks from his Co Kildare home, Lyons Demesne, would go on public view in Ireland next month before going under the hammer in London.
Christie’s said the sale would provide a rare glimpse into a private Irish treasure trove but stressed that the auction would feature just a relatively small selection of works from the total Ryan collection, which is estimated to number more than 2,000 pieces.
Nevertheless, the sale features 400 lots of European fine and decorative arts spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, bought from Irish and international dealers and at auctions.
Ryan was a renowned connoisseur and Christie’s claims his vision and celebration of skilled craftsmanship is reflected in the quality of the works to be offered.
The auction is expected to attract interest from collectors in Ireland and worldwide. It will take place at Christie’s King Street saleroom in central London on Bastille Day, July 14th.
Bidding will be in sterling and the sale is expected to realise in excess of £2 million (€2.24 million). Individual lots have been assigned estimates ranging from £300 to £300,000 (€337-€337,000).
The lots to be auctioned will go on view in Ireland in a special pre-sale exhibition at the Village at Lyons near Celbridge, Co Kildare for three days from Friday, May 20th. Entry will be by catalogue, priced €30. Highlights of the sale include: a portrait of Arthur Hill, second marquess of Downshire (1753-1801) by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (£200,000-£300,000/ €224,000-€337,000); a pair of George III giltwood console tables, in the manner of Thomas Chippendale the Younger (£50,000- £80,000/€56,000-€90,000); and a white marble sculpture of La Revelación de Amor( Love Awakened), which, despite its Spanish title, is by Giovanni Battista Lombardi, circa 1870 (£30,000- £50,000/€33,700-€56,000).
Ryan, a billionaire tax exile who was based in Monaco, died aged 71 in 2007 and was one of Ireland’s richest men. He was a successful businessman, a well-known racehorse breeder, and a philanthropist, who gave large donations to various educational establishments. A native of Thurles, Co Tipperary, he made his fortune, first with aircraft-leasing company GPA, and subsequently with Ryanair, which he co-founded in 1985.
He owned property in Ireland (in counties Tipperary and Kildare) and overseas including London, Monte Carlo, Ibiza and a stud-farm in Kentucky. In 1996, he bought Lyons Demesne, a run-down estate in Co Kildare that was formerly home to the earls of Cloncurry but was latterly used by University College Dublin as an agricultural research facility.
He spent millions restoring the house, which Christie’s describes as “the largest, most ambitious and exhaustive programme of restoration ever undertaken in a private capacity in the history of the Irish State”. Ryan oversaw the rebuilding of the roof and the installation of 130 new windows in the Georgian mansion. He created new facilities, including 10 guest bedroom suites, a private cinema, a half-Olympic-sized swimming pool and grounds that feature a 22-acre lake, a landing strip for private aircraft and extensive stables.
He also created the Village at Lyons – a mix of residential and holiday homes, with a restaurant, cafe, wedding venue and cookery school. More than 100 people worked on the restoration project for two years.
Ryan furnished the house with a lavish collection of art and antiques. His collection was reputedly influenced by the guidance of his friend Miranda Guinness, the dowager countess of Iveagh, who died earlier this year.
Following Ryan's death, former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald wrote in The Irish Timesthat he had "a remarkable aesthetic sensibility, which enabled him to become a wise and generous patron of the arts. That quality led him to restore, and to decorate and furnish magnificently" the house at Lyons Demesne.
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary recalled how he used to attend meetings with Ryan in his previous home at Killboy in Co Tipperary. O’Leary recalled:
“He was in Mexico one year and bought an old antique door and shipped it back to Killboy. He thought, ‘what the hell am I going to do with this thing?’, so he built a chapel in Killboy to fit the door.” O’Leary added: “He was a great man for buying a statue that no one could use and building a garden around it.”
In 2009, the Ryan family put Lyons Demesne on the market at €80 million – the highest price ever asked for an Irish house. But it failed to sell. Since then the price has dropped to €50 million but remains for sale, with the Christie’s International Real Estate agency.
A spokesperson for the Ryan family said that the reason for the sale of the art and antiques was that none of the family could enjoy the collection as they do not live in the house.
The remainder of the collection would stay in the house and could be sold – by negotiation – to the eventual purchaser of the estate or auctioned separately at a future date.
Tony Ryan was survived by three sons. The eldest, Cathal Ryan, died prematurely aged 48, in December 2007 – three months after his father’s death. Declan Ryan runs a private investment company called Irelandia Investments, which set up low-cost airlines in Asia and Mexico, and has funded the One Foundation charity, which supports projects for disadvantaged children and young people in Ireland and Vietnam. Shane Ryan is a businessman in London.
Unlike many of Ireland’s wealthiest dynasties, the Ryan family appears to have weathered the economic crisis relatively unscathed.
