Ireland and UK art row to re-open
IN the run-up to the 1916 Centenary celebrations Ireland and the UK are at odds again – this time over a 100-year-old row about a collection of paintings
Pressure is mounting on the UK to return the works by Impressionist artists to Dublin and city leaders here will consider formally demanding the 39 works by the likes of Renoir, Monet and Manet.
The collection was originally left to London’s National Gallery by Cork-born art collector Sir Hugh Lane, who died on board the Lusitania when it was sunk by a German torpedo off Co. Cork in 1915.
It was later discovered that he had written a codicil to his will stating he had changed his mind about the paintings going to London and bequeathing them to Dublin.
The amendment was signed but not witnessed and despite a toplevel government intervention in 1929 the National Gallery in London retained legal ownership. Controversy raged for decades afterwards with the likes of WB Yeats and Lady Gregory – Lane’s aunt – weighing in to have the collector’s final wishes honoured.
Despite agreements in 1979 and 1993 which saw much of the collection loaned to Dublin’s City Gallery on Parnell Square, city representatives are considering a fresh initiative to have the collection officially returned.
Next week, Dublin City Council will debate a motion tabled by Fianna Fáil councillor Jim O’Callaghan to return the collection of impressionist paintings’.
Mr O’Callaghan said he was confident the motion would be passed.
‘I think it is important that the political representatives of the city of Dublin indicate that they believe the paintings should be returned to their rightful home,’ Fianna Fáil’s Mr O’Callaghan said. ‘2016 would be a good year for authorities to return these items back to Dublin.’
The National Gallery in London refused to respond to questions about the future of the Hugh Lane collection after the existing agreement expires in 2019, or whether there were any talks about alternative arrangements.
A spokeswoman said ‘an amicable agreement’ has been in place for many years and remains ‘valid’ for another three years.
Under the 1979 deal, 30 pictures were given on loan to the Hugh Lane in Dublin with eight pictures remaining in London. In 1993, the eight paintings in London were divided into two groups which were shown alternately in Dublin and London for six years at a time.
They include Renoir’s The Umbrellas, Manet’s Eva Gonzales, and Degas’s Beach Scene.
39 the number of paintings in the disputed collection