Celebrity chef Conrad Gallagher has dropped his ownership claim to three paintings he had been accused of stealing. A legal battle over the abstract art, worth €10,900, was due to take place at Dublin District Court yesterday.
However, the court was told Mr Gallagher was "not taking any further part" in the proceedings.
The court ordered that the Felim Egan paintings be returned to the Fitzwilliam Hotel, St Stephen's Green, which has always insisted it was the rightful owner.
Mr Gallagher (32), who is now working for a hotel chain in South Africa, was not in court yesterday.
Following his acquittal for theft by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in July, Mr Gallagher had said he was determined to have his property returned to him. The art has since been stored by gardaí at Harcourt Terrace. Mr Gallagher had been running his Peacock Alley restaurant in the Fitzwilliam.
The jury at the theft trial unanimously returned a "not guilty" verdict. The hotel had claimed Mr Gallagher, when in financial hardship, had sold it 19 paintings for £20,000.
The chef insisted he had sold only 16 paintings to the hotel and was within his rights to remove the three Phelim Egans from the premises. Gardaí seized the art when the investigation into Mr Gallagher began in 2000.
However, it was returned to the Fitzwilliam last October after Mr Gallagher failed to turn up for trial and went to live in the US. After his extradition, gardaí took the paintings back again as exhibits for the new trial.
Three weeks after the theft trial, Ampleforth Ltd, owner of the Fitzwilliam, lodged a Police Property Application, asking Dublin District Court to declare it as owner.
Under the procedure, the Garda notified all other claimants, including Mr Gallagher, and the auctioneers who originally sold the paintings, Nosnar Ltd, trading as Thomas P. Adams, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Mr Gallagher initially challenged the Fitzwilliam's legal claim to ownership. However, the court yesterday heard the chef was "no longer claiming an interest" in the paintings. Judge Mary Collins was told that, in a telephone conversation, Mr Gallagher's solicitor had said his client was "not taking any further part" in the proceedings.
During a brief adjournment, Mr Kevin O'Higgins, solicitor for Adams auctioneers, counsel for the Fitzwilliam, and the solicitor for the State reached an agreement that the paintings be returned to the hotel. Ownership was then granted by the court.
- A criminal trial alleging theft is a totally different procedure from a civil action about ownership, writes Carol Coulter.
In a criminal trial, the burden of proof is "beyond all reasonable doubt", and the jury must also be satisfied not only that a crime was committed, but that the person committing it was aware he or she was committing the crime.
In a civil action, the burden of proof is "on the balance of probabilities". In this case, the hotel owner, Ampleforth Ltd, sought possession of the paintings from the Garda Síochána, who had held the paintings while the criminal proceedings were ongoing, and Mr Gallagher contested its claim. Yesterday he said he was no longer claiming an interest in them. This in no way brings his acquittal on the criminal charge into question.