Hannibal Lecter’s mask has sold for €85,000 at an auction of highly unusual items from Michael Flatley’s plush country pile.
The Lord of the Dance star was flogging around 700 lots in the sale, including a full suit of replica armour for €1,500, an Irish masonic sword for €50 and a Ferrari car cover for around €300, from his Castlehyde House in Co Cork.
The light-up Hannibal Lecter mask, signed by actor Anthony Hopkins and co-star Julianne Moore, was estimated for between €80,000 and €120,000.
The mask was worn by Hopkins in the 2001 film Hannibal.
Philip Sheppard, from Sheppard’s Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois, told the Irish Mirror there was international interest in the sale.
He said: “We’ve people from the States, right back to the Pacific Rim, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“There’s a whole new decorative scheme being implemented following his decision to retain the property.
“He refused €20 million from an international consortium hotel group and has decided to revisit the decor of the property.
“These are things that are surplus to requirements.”
Other items dusted off for the auction include luxury luggage, huge amounts of antique furniture, Renaissance paintings and Flintlock rifles.
Cheaper items include walking sticks and a faux marble bust of Napoleon.
Mr Sheppard told RTE Radio One: “Everything is selling, mostly the high end of the estimates, some of them beyond it.
“And there’s the odd bargain along the way. I just watched a bamboo umbrella being sold for €25.
“There was a chess set guided at €150 to €250, it made €500. It’s gone to somebody in Switzerland.”
The dancers’ huge artworks are also up for grabs.
The 62-year-old Irish dancing supremo’s country manor had been on the market for a number of years and was almost sold to an international hotel group before the Irish-American pulled the plug at the last minute.
Mr Sheppard said: “He’s emotionally invested in the property.”
Flatley spent a reported €37 million doing-up the house 20 years ago.
Mr Sheppard added: “The decoration is akin to something you might see in South Beach in Florida.”
Castlehyde, which dates from 1760 and was once the ancestral home of Ireland’s first president Douglas Hyde, was bought by the dancer 21 years ago for €4 million.
The property includes 12 bedroom suites and an indoor recreation centre with a swimming pool.
