Couple due in court over Beit theft
Thomas Douglas, aged 52, of Clondalkin, Dublin, and his wife, Noeleen, 45, are expected to seek bail when they appear before Dublin District Court this morning.
The pair were arrested at the weekend in relation to the theft of five paintings worth €8.5m from Russborough three months ago. They were brought before a special court sitting on Saturday where they were charged with handling stolen property.
All five paintings, including two works by the famous Flemish painter Rubens, were recovered during a garda raid on the couple’s home on Friday. The stolen paintings, which had been removed from their frames, were hidden in clothes in the attic of the council house.
Gardaí from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, acting on a tip-off, believed that the paintings were about to be moved to a new location at the weekend by the criminal gang.
The latest robbery was the fourth daring raid in the past 20 years on Russborough House - the stately home near Blessington owned by the late South African diamond magnate, Sir Alfred Beit, which houses the `€40m collection. Only two of the paintings stolen during those robberies are still missing.
The paintings, which include several masterpieces held in trust on behalf of the nation, have previously been targeted by the IRA and the notorious Dublin crime boss Martin Cahill (also known as The General).
Following the latest arrests, Assistant Garda Commissioner Joe Egan said he hoped criminal gangs would realise “the folly of their actions” in targeting paintings which could never be sold on the open market. He also predicted that further arrests would follow. The future location of the Beit Collection has also to be determined after gardaí expressed concern about the regular breaches of security at Russborough House. The collection has been closed to the public while a major review of security is being conducted.
Many of the famous artworks are now understood to be housed in the safer environment of the National Gallery in Dublin - a move which some art lovers would like to see being made permanent.
In a separate garda investigation, a man and a woman were arrested in recent months in relation to another raid on Russborough in June last year. The two paintings stolen on that occasion, Gainsborough’s ‘Madame Bacelli’ and Bellotto’s ‘View of Florence’, were also recovered with just minor damage.
The five paintings recovered this weekend were Rubens’ ‘Portrait of a Dominican Monk’ and ‘Venus Supplicating Jupiter’, as well as Wilem van der Veld’s ‘Calm Sea’, Adrien van Osade’s ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’ and ‘The Cornfield’ by Jacob van Ruisdael.
