President's words 'shock' Wiesenthal director

President Mary McAleese has been criticised by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (SWC) for censuring it over allegations it made about the Hunt Museum. The centre said it would be publishing a report in five or six weeks' time which would vindicate its stance on the issue.

The centre's European director, Dr Shimon Samuels, said he was "quite shocked" at Mrs McAleese's remarks, which were uncalled for and were "not very presidential and were very unstatesmanlike".

"I have met the President. I have respect for her office. I have the fullest of respect for Ireland," he said.

"We will be vindicated and I think that Ireland will be vindicated."

On Monday, the President referred to allegations made by the SWC about the Hunt family when she visited the Limerick museum.

The allegations questioned the provenance of antiquities in the museum and claimed that the late John and Gertrude Hunt had done business with "notorious dealers in art looted by the Nazis".

Mrs McAleese said the allegations were "baseless . . . unfounded . . . a tissue of lies" and had hurt many people.

Last October, an independent report by Lynn Nicholas, a world authority on Nazi looted art, found that "the presently available information and research provides no proof whatsoever that the Hunts were Nazis, that they were involved in any kind of espionage, or that they were traffickers in looted art".

The SWC, an international Jewish human rights organisation, is named after Wiesenthal, who survived the Nazi death camps and spent his life bringing former members of the Nazi regime to justice.

Yesterday Dr Samuels said it had taken the Irish authorities four years to investigate the matter and unfortunately the SWC was "deliberately excluded" from all the stages of the investigation, despite wishing to be involved.

He said the centre would soon produce a lengthy and well-documented report which would put the issue in historical context and would explain the place of the Hunts in relation to the Nazi party.

Some of these facts were already in the public domain but had been ignored, he said.

Dr Samuels said the report would put all the facts on the table in relation to the provenance of antiquities and would place the matter in an international context.

The allegations first came to public notice after Mrs McAleese presented the 2003 Museum of the Year award to the Hunt Museum.

Two months later, Dr Samuels wrote to Mrs McAleese requesting that she retract the award and setting out his reasons.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the president said she would not be making any further comment on the controversy.