Spring clean at Guinness heir's home nets €2.6m

The mother of all garage sales raised an estimated €2.6 million yesterday, even though its two most valuable lots were withdrawn before the hammer fell.

Garech Browne's late spring-cleaning auction drew a crowd of more than 300 to his home in Luggala, deep in the Wicklow mountains.

Some were there only to sneak a look around what is arguably the most beautiful setting of any house in Ireland. But enough were interested in the merchandise to push sales figures well past expectations.

Guinness heir Browne had complained that, before the sale, he was "living among clutter, with things under the bed", some of them the contents of another house he sold in 1996.

The decluttering exercise yielded an eclectic selection, ranging from ornately carved asparagus tongs - "every home should have one" quipped the auctioneer - to the fossilised antlers of a giant Irish deer.

Two pairs of antique rosary beads went for €3,600 and €3,000 respectively. In stark contrast, a painting called Two Nudes by Edward Delaney was withdrawn, but not before provoking nervous giggles from the otherwise reserved audience. The painting was Lot 57, although the general feeling was that Lot 69 would have been more apt.

The headline item was also withdrawn, despite attracting a bid of €420,000. The Francis Johnston speaker's clock, made for Grattan's parliament, was one of a number of items its owner hoped would remain in Irish hands. In the event, it failed to reach an unspecified reserve and was - in the auctioneer's words - "going back into the house".

The auction was held in a marquee erected beside Browne's gothic hunting lodge. A second marquee housed most of the items for sale, while a third provided catering. The catalogue warned visitors that the long downhill entrance to Luggala was a "one-carriage avenue with no passing facilities, and is precipitous in places".

The bidding was occasionally precipitous too. A Louis le Brocquy portrait of fellow painter Francis Bacon rose quickly to €320,000. But despite this being more than twice the auctioneer's estimate, it was less than the reserve price and the picture was withdrawn.

Henry Mountcharles was luckier. There were no prizes for guessing he was there for Lot 273, a watercolour of Slane Castle attributed to George Barrett (1762-1842). Sure enough, after a short but vigorous tussle with a rival bidder, Slane's current occupant prevailed at €12,000.

Browne admitted there were "four or five" things in the sale he was reluctant to lose. He had acquired some objects down the years only to ensure that they stayed in Ireland. "People here usen't to appreciate some of the things that mattered, but that has now blessedly changed," he said.

One of the most important lots, historically, was a series of four early drawings of Dublin by Joseph Tudor (1695-1759). The set was sold for €100,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder. A spokeswoman said the buyer was believed to be Irish.