PART of the proceeds of a fine art auction which took place at the Dublin salerooms of James Adam yesterday has been frozen by the High Court.
Mr Justice Geoghegan ordered the auctioneers not to release any money from antiques sales on behalf of Fritz, Brigitte or Susanne Wolff or to release any unsold effects to them.
He also restrained a removals company, RMF (Ireland) Ltd, of Dosco Industrial Estate, South Douglas Road, Cork, from releasing to the Wolffs a 1933 car.
Mr Tony Aston, counsel for a number of German plaintiffs seeking to enforce a judgment of the Regional Court of Frankfurt, said the defendants had previously owned Castlelyons House, Castlelyons, Co Cork, which had been repossessed by a bank and was to be auctioned on September 25th.
He said that in June 1995 the deputy Master of the High Court had directed that the German court's order for 540,866 deutschmarks (over £222,000) be enforced here and restrained the Wolffs from reducing their assets in Ireland.
Mr Aston said the entire contents of Castlelyons House had been removed to a basement flat at Wellington Road, Dublin, which was the Wolffs' current address, and solicitors enforcing the German court's order had learned of yesterday's auction.