Stolen paintings recovered by gardaí

Two stolen paintings worth up to €4m were today being examined in Ireland’s National Gallery after being recovered by gardaí.

Gardaí found the two paintings last night after they were stolen from Russborough House in Wicklow in an armed raid last year.

Gainsborough’s Madame Baccelli and Bernardo Bellotto’s View of Florence were recovered by detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Garda arts and antiquities unit in a house in South Dublin.

No arrests were made.

The works were stolen on June 26 last year after two cars rammed the front door of Russborough House. At least two armed men were involved in the theft.

A Garda spokesman said the paintings were in a good condition but they were not in their frames.

This was the second time Madame Baccelli had been stolen.

The infamous Dublin gangster Martin Cahill, nicknamed the General stole the painting, which portrays a dancing lady in white and blue ribbons, in a 1986 raid.

Sergio Benedetti, curator of the National Gallery, paid tribute to the police and said he was delighted to have the works back.

“We are very excited to have these paintings back,” he said.

“The two pictures are very important, important for the back collection and also very important for the national heritage.”

Mr Benedetti said he was not interested in the mystery surrounding how the paintings were recovered.

“What we are interested in is that we finally got back the paintings,” he said.

“I am an art historian so I’m keen that these two marvellous paintings are back.”