Part of Ulster Bank’s extensive art collection goes under the hammer

The affaire de coeur between financial institutions and the art world has been in play since the time of the Renaissance, when merchant bankers on the continent – such as the Medici of Florence – funded artwork, particularly as a means to guarantee themselves a stairway to heaven.

The practice of banks continuing to collect art has persisted since then for a plethora of reasons, with some banking institutions amassing enormous and impressive legacy art ...