Kieran O’Boyle is an auctioneer, valuer and associate director at Adam’s Auctioneers, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. He is involved in all aspects of the business, particularly the Adam’s history auctions, the antiques and decorative arts auctions and the annual Country House Collections auction.

What's your background?
I grew up in Dublin but spent a lot of my childhood holidays in the Erris peninsula in Mayo, visiting my maternal grandparents. The landscape is so beautiful there with rugged coastlines and big dramatic skies, it really is a visual feast and easy to see how that part of Ireland attracts so many artists. I also have strong memories of my grandmother taking me to the local church as a young boy, I think it was her escape! I was fascinated by the sculptures and artworks, the batik depictions of the Stations of the Cross and how these pictures told their story. I learned later that some pieces were by the sculptor Imogen Stuart. I suppose it was my first exhibition.

So it was no surprise that after completing a degree in history of art and information studies and a graduate diploma in business and IT, both from UCD, I was drawn to a business such as Adam’s.

Along the way I've also studied in Italy at the Florence Academy of Art, practicing classical realist figurative painting, which was a wonderful experience allowing me to push paint around in such a captivating city.

I don’t have the time to paint any more. Now I just finger-paint with my daughter Emily ( 3). I am one year through a two-year part-time masters in digital marketing at Smurfit Business College, which is incredibly interesting. The digital space is where our industry has most transformed over the last decade.

Internet bidding means markets have become smaller and collectors’ access to specialist items has become dramatically easier. The way clients browse, buy and communicate with us has changed forever.

Career highlights? 
Without doubt, it has been a real privilege to handle the rare and unique Irish historical items we have sold and valued over the years. Items that have shaped this country's history such as Patrick Pearse's 1916 surrender letter which we sold in 2005 for €830,000 and will be offering again in December this year. Peadar Kearney's first draft of Amhrán na bhFiann which we sold in 2006 for €900,000 and the iconic Irish document, the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Out of an estimated 25 original copies in private hands we have been fortunate to have handled nearly half of them at some stage. These documents provide a real and tangible link to those pivotal days in our past and it can be quite profound to think they were witness to those times, conveying both the aspirations and the struggles.

What advice would you give collectors/investors?
Always buy what you like or enjoy, you will always gain value from a piece that way.

Follow your curiosity and educate yourself through looking and reading. Enquire about the provenance of an item which is important to know for any piece but vital when it comes to historical items as their value can often be directly linked to it.

Finally, ask advice from the experts. People in this business are in it because they love it and are very happy to share whatever information they can.

What do you personally collect and why?
I collect all sorts of things and tend to collect an item, live with it for a while and then let it go.

Owning a piece and living with it can be a great education as the best artworks and objects reveal themselves over time and you spot things you didn't see initially. I do have a fascination with drawings from all periods, especially sketches and preparatory drawings as they offer an insight into how an artist is thinking and their working processes that may not be evident in a finished piece.

What would you buy if money were no object? 
I'd like to reward the creators of today by commissioning contemporary architects, artists and craftspeople to do their thing.

My first purchase would be a piece by Kinsale-based furniture maker Joseph Walsh – his work is phenomenal and it is exciting to know that work of that reputation is being produced in Ireland.

Second would be a work by the influential painter Alex Kanevsky, who has spent a bit of time painting in Ireland and who I have been following for a number of years.

And I’d love to resurrect my old friend Dave Smith’s Mabos initiative which described itself as a space to create, connect, share and play and did so much for creativity and integration in Dublin.

Ironically, it thrived in a disused warehouse on Hanover Quay in Dublin during recession times until the property market picked up in 2014 and sadly the lease wasn’t renewed for the building.

What's your favourite work of art and why? 
This changes all the time but the first thing that springs to mind is the Italian sculptor Bernini's Apollo and Daphne for its sheer skill and craftsmanship.

I was blown away when I first saw it and other Bernini masterpieces in Galleria Borghese in Rome. Since then, Villa Borghese is on my must-see list when in Rome and I've been lucky enough to have returned a few times. It is hard to believe these pieces were created by human hand in cold hard marble almost 400 years ago but inspiring to know that they were.

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In conversation with Michael Parsons