ENGLAND'S difficulty is Ireland's opportunity when it comes to art acquisitions.
The growing practice of British museums and art galleries charging admission has cost the Walker Gallery in Liverpool three Italian Baroque paintings. They are now likely to go instead to the National Gallery in Dublin, which does not charge admission.
The paintings, Saint John the Baptist visited in Prison by Salome by Guercino (1591-1666); Landscape with Saint Bruno in Ecstasy by Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666); and Venits, Mars and the Forge of Vulcan by Luca Giordano (1634-1705), are part of the extensive collection of an art historian Sir Denis Mahon (86), estimated to be worth Pounds 25 million.
Last December Sir Denis announced he was bequeathing his collection to the public, on condition that its members had free access to the paintings. Five paintings were destined for the National Gallery in Dublin, and the others for various galleries in Britain and Italy.
This week the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside decided to introduce charges at eight collections from next Tuesday. This includes the Walker Gallery, which was to receive the three paintings from Sir Denis's collection. The decision resulted in their owner stating publicly that he now intended contacting the National Gallery in Dublin to offer it the paintings.
"They are three quite fine Old Master paintings, and I had intended for them to go to Merseyside," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "But bearing in mind that recent Irish legislation renders admission charges highly unlikely at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin 1 shall be getting in touch with the authorities of that gallery to ascertain if they would like to receive the paintings."
According to a spokesman for the National Gallery, the recent Cultural Institutions Act severely limited the ability of the gallery to introduce charges, and this "strengthened its position" with regard to Sir Denis.
The National Gallery confirmed yesterday that it had received this offer but "the acceptance of the paintings is a matter for the board of the gallery"
However, it is unlikely the board would turn down such a gift. The director, Mr Raymond Keaveney, added that while they were saddened at the Walker Gallery's predicament, "the National Gallery of Ireland would see Dublin as an appropriate home, given Sir Denis's association with Ireland and the gallery."
Priest tells Dublin conference of need for rapprochment between church, media
By PATSY MCGARRY
Religious Affairs Correspondent
THE Catholic Church was compared at a conference in Dublin yesterday to an "old woman who has had her handbag snatched and been mugged and who is now afraid to go out, at night in case of another attack".
Father John Dardis SJ, communications director with the Dublin Archdiocese, was quoting a friend's description.
There was, he said, "a need for rapprochement between church and media," for "a real relationship with honest and vigorous exchange and robust argument" For too long the church had withdrawn in the face of what it considered poor treatment, he said.
The conference facilitator, Father Colm Kilcoyne, spoke of the "death of deference" in society, with a "shift from authority to experience, from respect to cynicism". He referred to the fragmentation of society, increased alienation and the privatisation of morality. The media and church, he suggested, represented two different temples in this context, and what we were seeing was a clash of both temples.
A journalist and broadcaster, Mr Vincent Browne, said the Catholic Church "reacts more fiercely to attempts to hold it accountable, than (do) other institutions" - It was "hugely influential and powerful" politically, culturally, and financially.
He said that during recent controversies on contraception, divorce and homosexuality there had been a church shift, which purported to be towards the liberal agenda on the basis that its stance was in the interests of the common good. But this was "only a gloss" as the church's perception of the common good was from a Catholic perspective.