Minister says art collection belongs to the State

ARTS Minister John O’Donoghue yesterday stepped into the row surrounding the Great Southern Hotel’s art collection, insisting it should be returned to the State in its entirety.

The ownership of the art collection — worth between €2 million and €4m — was thrown into doubt when the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) announced earlier this year it was disposing of the State-owned hotel group.

Labour deputy Michael D Higgins raised the status of the collection in a series of Dáil questions.

Mr Higgins claimed the DAA had removed “by stealth” dozens of the paintings from the walls of Great Southern Hotels.

He argued that the DAA was not entitled to sell them, as they had been jointly purchased by the Arts Council and CIE (the former owners of the group) on behalf of the State.

Yesterday, Mr O’Donoghue said that the paintings should be returned to the State as they were purchased with assistance from the Arts Council when the hotels were in public ownership.

“It was never the intention of the scheme under which these works of Irish artists were purchased that (they would be exploited) for short-term pecuniary gain,” Mr O’Donoghue said.