An investigation has been launched after the official portrait of a former DUP lord mayor of Belfast was damaged during an event at the weekend. The painting of peer Wallace Browne was on display at Belfast City Hall.

One of the earliest portraits of a black person by a British artist will remain on public display after London’s National Portrait Gallery and the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles struck a £50 million (€56. 5m) deal to buy it.

Artist Blaise Smith was awarded the €12,000 commission to paint the former Taoiseach but the Office of Public Works cannot say when portrait will adorn walls of Leinster House