Visionary collector’s haul of Irish art comes to Sotheby’s

Possessed of a passion for art, an eye that instinctively recognised quality, and the wherewithal to meet the bottom line, Irish-American entrepreneur Brian P Burns was a man with a mission, in his own words “to inform the American-Irish diaspora about the beauty and the visual tapestry that Irish art has bequeathed the world”. Irish works from his collection will be sold at Sotheby’s later this month.

Roderic O’Conor’s Romeo and Juliet leads ...