Greatest Art Sale Ever?

It is being billed as the richest art sale Europe has ever seen, and will bring together impressionists, surrealists and even the graffiti artist Banksy, reports the Guardian. Some significant deaths and a buoyant art market - which shows no sign of cooling down - have joined to create a series of art sales estimated to be worth over £200m to be held over four days at Sotheby's next week. It means that those with huge amounts of disposable cash, from Russian oligarchs to City bonus boys, will be converging on the auction house in New Bond Street, London, to take part in sales which are a who's who of impressionist and modern artists. There are Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Monet, Gauguin, Modigliani, Picasso and Soutine. There are the surrealists, Magritte, Ernst, Duchamp, Dali and Masson. The Germans and Austrians are represented by Schiele, Kandinsky, Nolde and Meidner. Contemporary art comes from Warhol, Richter, Bacon, Lichtenstein, Basquiat, Riley. And the newer boys and girls, Doig, Banksy, Hirst and Ofili.There is so much to display in fact that from Saturday, for the first time, a huge marquee will be erected in Hanover Square Gardens, London, to show some of the more cutting edge, recent works of art. (For more, click the Headline) Irish Art