The sale or disposal by a Dublin art gallery of dozens of valuable works by eccentric Irish artist, the late Markey Robinson, was temporarily blocked yesterday by Mr Justice Kearns in the High Court.
Mr David Marcus Robinson was known only as "Markey" to art collectors who are now prepared to pay tens of thousands of pounds for one of his paintings. He was found dead at the age of 80 two months ago in a two-up two-down terraced house in a Belfast side-street.
For years before he returned to his native Belfast, Markey lived and worked in a room above the Oriel Gallery, Clare Street, Dublin, daily wandering around the city and searching skips and rubbish tips for boards and paper on which he would paint.
Mr David Barniville, counsel for the legal representatives of Mr Robinson's two daughters, Ms Annie Robinson and Ms Bernadette Muldowney, told the court that during his life many of Markey's paintings were bought for hundreds of pounds and sold on for thousands.
Mr Barniville told Mr Justice Kearns that during Markey's daily material-gathering meanderings around Dublin his pockets would be filled with large amounts of cash. Following his death on January 28th last, solicitors Matheson Ormsby Prentice traced 11 deposit accounts in banks north and south containing £114,248 sterling and £63,684. A search of banks was continuing.
Mr Cedric Christie, a solicitor, said his firm represented Ms Robinson, of West Ninth Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Ms Bernadette Muldowney, Niddrie House Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, daughters and the only surviving next-of-kin of Markey who was divorced in the US about 20 years ago.
He said Markey was a well known and successful artist but extremely eccentric. He was born in Belfast and came to Dublin in the early 1970s where he lived until 1996. During his time in Dublin he worked in a room at the top of the Oriel Gallery owned and operated by Mr Oliver J Nulty, of Pembroke Lane, Dublin. Markey had lost contact with members of his family for many years prior to his death at Tudor Place, Belfast. He sold some of his paintings to Mr Nulty, sometimes for merely hundreds of pounds, and Mr Nulty would sell them on for thousands.
He said his firm had been attempting to obtain a full inventory of works left by Markey at the Oriel Gallery but Mr Nulty had failed to furnish such an inventory despite a number of requests.
Ms Robinson had been allowed last month to video record, by way of a memento, Markey's works held by Mr Nulty. Ms Robinson believed the paintings were the property of her father's estate. Because of a domineering relationship between Mr Nulty and Markey, she believed many of the sales of paintings which Markey appeared to have made to Mr Nulty were capable of being challenged on the grounds of undue influence.
Matheson Ormsby Prentice reserved the right to apply to the court to set aside any of those sales on receipt of a detailed account of the relationship. While Ms Robinson had ascertained that Markey had a relationship with other galleries in Dublin there was apparently no reason to dispute the validity of sales made to or through those galleries. Mr Christie said the situation could change pending the conclusion of inquiries.
He felt other works may have been removed from the Oriel Gallery and stored elsewhere. A collection of 70 Markey works had been put up for auction at the Dunadry Inn, Templepatrick, Co Antrim on March 2nd last.
While he stressed he was making no allegation that Mr Nulty was responsible for placing these works for sale he said it emphasised the importance of obtaining a full inventory of Markey's works held by Mr Nulty at the date of the artist's death, which would now add to the value of his works.
Mr Justice Kearns granted Mr Christie and a fellow solicitor, Mr Graham Richards, leave to bring High Court proceedings for the purpose of collecting and preserving the assets of Markey, and restrained Mr Nulty and the Oriel Gallery from selling or disposing of any works within his possession or procurement.