Baron tried to remove paintings from Dromoland

The 18th Baron Inchiquin turned up at Dromoland Castle Hotel in the early hours of the morning with a Northern Ireland removals company in a bid to unlawfully take family portraits off the walls, the High Court has been told.

Mark Nolan, managing director and general manager of the hotel, alleged in a sworn statement that Lord Inchiquin, otherwise known as Conor O’Brien, had told the night porter on Jul 10 that he had Mr Nolan’s permission to remove 37 paintings.

Mr Nolan said he had to be woken to stop Lord Inchiquin’s team taking the O’Brien ancestral family paintings, valued at €1.4m, off the walls. “It was not until I was notified of these activities and confronted by (Lord Inchiquin) and his associates that they removed themselves from the... premises,” he said.

“By the time I arrived shortly before 1am, two of the paintings had already been removed and boxed. At my request the paintings were subsequently re-hung.”

In a legal row between the aristocrat and the five-star Clare hotel, Mr O’Brien, of Dromoland Estate, Newmarket on Fergus, is seeking the return of the portraits that have hung in the castle for decades before and after it became a hotel.

Frank Callanan, for the baron, said the art collection was a very important and unique record illustrating the history of one of Ireland’s most noble families.

He said that under an agreement, Lord Inchiquin had lent his collection to Dromoland Castle Holdings Ltd and they had been on display at the hotel for decades.

Lord Inchiquin told Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe that his solicitor Robert Dore had legally terminated the agreement.

He alleged the hotel had been grossly negligent and reckless with regard to the paintings and frames. It would cost almost €300,000 to restore them.

The baron is also seeking to restrain the hotel from making reproductions of the paintings. The hotel accepts the originals belong to Lord Inchiquin.

He told the court he had pre-arranged with the hotel for expert removers McGimpsey Brothers, of Bangor, Co Down, to collect the paintings after midnight to cause the minimum of inconvenience to the hotel, but Mr Nolan would not permit their collection.

Mr Callanan said Lord Inchiquin wanted to sell the paintings to a family member so they could remain within the O’Brien family and he had been made an offer for their purchase.

Jonathan Newman, for the hotel owners, told the court that copyright of the paintings, which, he said, had probably never existed, would have expired long ago and anybody could copy them.

Mr Nolan said in an affidavit that the paintings had a long historical connection with Dromoland Castle and their withdrawal en masse would cause significant disruption to the business of the hotel. Such removal would cause irreparable damage to the reputation of the hotel.

He denied that the pictures and frames had been damaged by lack of care by the hotel owners. The company had no obligation to carry out maintenance or restoration works on them although it had taken every care to insure they came to no harm.

The hearing continues