from the Hannibal Lecter mask for € 85,000 to ‘precious cushions’ for € 190

Someone just paid € 85,000 for an extremely spooky piece of film history owned by dancer Michael Flatley. This was the price obtained at auction Thursday for the muzzle-shaped mask worn by Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. It was one of several hundred items from Flatley’s house, Castlehyde, in Fermoy Co Cork, auctioned for two days by Sheppard’s Auction House of Durrow, Co Laois.

Billed as a “waste” sale, the mask, signed by the film’s two stars, Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore, was estimated to be priced at between € 80,000 and € 120,000. It was the star item in the hundreds of items Flatley was selling at his sprawling cleaning house, and there were 346 bidders viewing it online when it sold.

The second most expensive lot was a painting created by Flatley himself. Known for covering the soles of his shoes in paint and then dancing on canvas to create art, the piece, an acrylic on vinyl titled The Finish Line, had an estimated value of € 30,000- € 50,000. There were 273 bidders online when it went up for sale, and the initial bid of 15,000 euros resulted in a sale of 37,000 euros.

If you were looking for armor, mounted gazelle heads, decommissioned weapons, zebra skin framed mirrors, and bamboo umbrellas, they all offered multiples. Anyway, what is an umbrella worth? Lot 23, a bamboo umbrella, sold for € 25. Perhaps the most random item of the day was batch number 80. In these Covid-19 times, it is fair to say that we are all much more aware of having our tissues ready. Roll up, lot number 80; Versace’s designer tissue dispenser, which was sold for € 420 minus the tissues.

Five “precious cushions”, as described by auctioneer Michael Sheppard, sold for 190 euros. The cushions were being sold, as were the couches, armchairs, chaise longues, and couches that they had presumably scattered about. It’s a wonder there is somewhere to sit in Castlehyde, so numerous were the sofas for sale, but perhaps the occupants spend most of their time upright, dancing, and don’t use much of the things one sits on. A pair of carved gilt sofas, estimated at € 1,500 to € 2,500, sold for € 1,700. “Very cheap!” the auctioneer declared regretfully, reluctantly lowering the deck.

Gold and rococo were a theme: gold mirrors, gold tables, gold chaise longues, gold chess sets. Maybe it’s the recent popularity of the chess-themed Netflix hit, The Queen’s Gambit, but a gold chess set sold for $ 1,000, while a pair of gold marble-topped tables sold comparatively for a paltry $ 650. .

Flatley seems to be a person of eclectic taste. Along with the chaise longues and gazelle heads, and the many chess sets, he also sold a carved wooden eagle with a golden beak, which sold for 1,700 euros. An empty gun cabinet – “A proper gun cabinet with reinforced glass and doors,” as the auctioneer noted – sold for 750 euros. A pipe with a tortoiseshell stem cost € 130.

Lot 143, a “pair of monumental stone urns,” estimated at between € 4,000 and € 6,000, turned out to be monumentally unpopular and was one of the few lots that did not sell. Neither did a 19th century ebony and gilt console and mirror, estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 euros.

But a Lladró porcelain ornament of a golfer sold for € 101. So did an item disconcertingly described as a “rich marble pedestal,” which sold for € 700. A pair of vertical speakers sold for € 100. They would probably look good on top of the pedestal.

The longest bidding period was not for the mask that Anthony Hopkins wore in a movie, nor for the painting that Michael Flatley created himself, but for a bar cabinet. We all know that most public bars have been closed for months, which may have sparked an aggressive bid for this mahogany bar unit with its marble and brass top. Bids increased by multiples of hundreds over several minutes and it eventually sold for € 8,200. This was more than € 5,000 over estimate, so someone really wanted that bar, and perhaps with it, a reminder of more normal times.

Castlehyde’s auction of items, including other Irish properties, continues on Friday morning. sheppards.ie