ULSTER MUM BUYS CHARLES' PICTURE
Ulster mum buys Charles' picture
A MOTHER of three from Northern Ireland last night paid £53,000 for a work of art by the Prince of Wales at an auction in aid of victims of the Omagh bombing.
The signed lithograph, one of 15 reproductions of a 1995 watercolour, was the focal point of last night's sale in Dublin.
The picture, entitled Windsor Castle, North Aspect, was sold at close to 18 times its standard retail price.
More than £150,000 was raised in the event at the National Concert Hall.
Agnes McCourt, founder and managing director of slimming company Unislim, said she intended to hang the painting in her Newry office.
She was happy to part with such a vast sum knowing the proceeds were going to Omagh, and she added: "I also fancied having one of the prince's pictures."
The prince donated the picture to the sale after being approached through the British embassy in Dublin by auction organiser John De Vere White, an auctioneer from Dublin, and Co Roscommon accountant Fergus Ahern.
Bidding opened at £2,000 and soared to over £50,000 in about three minutes.
The money was going directly to the Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh which tended to most of the dying and injured on August 15.
Sarah Fisher, from the hospital's intensive care unit, said she was "overwhelmed" by the response to the auction.
The money will buy specialist monitoring and physiotherapy equipment to help rehabilitate the blast survivors.
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