‘High art items’ never considered for Beit sale

The trustees who run Russborough House have told the Government that the sale of “high art items” was not under consideration in 2013, according to documents released under Freedom of Information.

Following recent controversy a planned auction at Christie’s in London of paintings, including two works by Rubens, was postponed last month so that a proposal from private Irish donors for the possible purchase of artworks could be explored.

Minutes of a meeting between then minister for arts Jimmy Deenihan and members of the Alfred Beit Foundation, on April 17th, 2013, state that the trust had looked at the "nuclear option" of closing down Russborough House.

“The option it was veering towards was disposal, as allowed by the foundation charter, of non-essential assets, ie some furniture, porcelain and eastern ceramics,” the minutes state.

Assests

“Core assets to the house and the demesne and ‘high’ art items were not under consideration. The assets in question were in storage (on an off-site) and had not been on public display to visitors for many years, if indeed ever.”

They were not essential to the presentation of the House, the minutes added.

“In that context the question of possible acquisition by the State was raised, and this could be direct or in the context of helping identify possible donors.”

However, a spokesman for the foundation said: “We’re happy to say that the foundation notified Government that it planned to sell art and its recollection is very clear that it did this.”

The minutes state that Mr Deenihan said he would speak to Brian Hayes, then minister of state, "in the context of an OPW involvement and also the context of any potential interest in the furniture and fine arts".

The minutes were released by the Department of the Arts after a request by The Irish Times.

Mr Hayes has previously disputed the trustees’ version of what was said at a meeting he held with trustees in September 2013. He insisted he was not told that some of the Beit collection paintings would be sold should Government support not be forthcoming.

Resources

However, slides the foundation says were shown to the Ministers at the meetings in April and September 2013 state Russborough would “run out of cash resources in 2014”.

The slides also state: “In order to generate additional capital, the foundation will need to dispose of some of its assets.”

The State was asked if it was interested in acquiring any of the assets, according to the foundation.