Ex-smuggler won’t show paintings at restaurant

A FORMER diamond smuggler and Mafia ship captain, now a reclusive artist, has withdrawn an exhibition which he was due to hold in Neil Prendeville’s Cork city centre restaurant.

Martin Bengtsson said he had been asked by the 96fm anchor to put on a display of paintings at his Lapp’s Quay Boardwalk eaterie after he was interviewed by him on the station earlier this year.

Mr Bengtsson, who teaches three students how to create forgeries of their favourite paintings, said he and his class had completed 30 pieces which they intended to put on display in the restaurant.

However, the revelations of what Mr Prendeville did on the notorious flight from London to Cork last month have proved too distasteful for the former gunrunner and career criminal. “I feel the same way as everyone else about what has emerged,” said the 77-year-old. “I do not like what he did and I don’t think my students would be too happy either.”

Mr Bengtsson creates forgeries at his makeshift studio in the Mitchelstown hinterland, which have sold for as much as €8,000. He can legitimately sell them because he clearly signs them with his own name.

He has now launched an appeal for anyone who is willing to house the exhibition to contact him on 087-77577069.