A man has been arrested in connection with the theft of paintings and other items belonging to the State from a private storage facility, Minister for the Arts Jimmy Deenihan has said.

He told the Dáil the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation made the arrest yesterday following the theft some time ago from the storage facility arrest. Mr Deenihan told the Dáil the items were stolen “long before I took up this office”. Further planned searches are being carried out in Limerick following the arrest, he said.

Mr Deenihan was responding to questions about security for State art and cultural items in the wake of a number of thefts in the past 12 months. He told Fianna Fail’s arts and culture spokesman Seán Ó Fearghail that “while my department provides funding to these institutions, the board of each institution is responsible for all operational matters including security arrangements and procedures”.

But “my department has written to all national cultural institutions twice so far in 2013 regarding security matters”.

Public concern
Mr Ó Fearghail highlighted general public concern that twice in the past 12 months artefacts had been stolen "from what we believed to be secure locations acquired by the State".

Mr Deenihan said the eight rhinoceros horns stolen in Swords last week had an estimated value of up to €500,000 and “were probably taken to supply the illegal trade in powdered horn used in traditional medicines in the Far East”. He said security was constantly under review.

Mr Ó Fearghail said he wished he could share the Minister’s confidence about the security in place for cultural artefacts. He had read that “the sole security man on the premises was tied up and that the thieves spent an hour on the premises before making off with the rhinoceros horns”. He said it was “frightful to think they could be stolen in such a manner”.

He also questioned why so many Irish artefacts and cultural items were in storage and not on display to the public throughout the State.

The Kildare South TD said “when you consider the number of locations throughout the State where these artefacts could be made available to the public in a safe manner”, he wondered why so many items were not on display “so that they may be enjoyed by the public, which is the purpose for which they were supplied to the State in the first instance”.

The Minister told him “it comes back to the issue of security. We do not have enough secure spaces in this country to guarantee that the artefacts would be secure if they were put on display.”