Woman denies handling stolen Rossborough paintings

A woman has denied at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that she handled two paintings worth an estimated €2.6m that were stolen from Rossborough House in Co Wicklow in 2001.

Rosemary Quinn (aged 48) of St. Aongus Park, Tallaght, pleaded not guilty to handling a Thomas Gainsborough painting entitled "Madame Baccelli" and a Bernardo Belotto painting entitled "A View of Florence" on June 26, 2001.

Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, told the jury the garda investigation that immediately followed the theft did not reveal any obvious leads, but analysis of phone records led to the arrest of Ms Quinn on January 30, 2002 at Whitehall Square, Whitehall Road West, Dublin 12.

Mr McGinn said it would be the prosecution’s case that those involved in the theft contacted Ms Quinn on both her mobile and home phones. A subsequent forensic examination of her car found flakes of gold paint which were later found to match that on the frames of the stolen paintings.

He said that on June 26, 2001, a Volkswagen Golf and a jeep pulled up to the main entrance of Rossborough House. Two men got out of the back of the jeep and placed a wooden battering ram against the front door.

They drove the jeep up the stone steps and into the door, forcing it open. Two men went into the house and removed the paintings from their wall mountings. They then set the jeep on fire at the front door before leaving the estate in the Volkswagen. This was later found burned out in a nearby car park.

Mr Andrew O’Conner, a former head of conservation at the National Gallery of Art, told Mr McGinn that both the Gainsborough and Belotto were very important and very valuable 18th Century paintings.

He said the frames had been plated with what was probably Italian gold leaf. He agreed that he provided a sample of the gold leaf that would have been used on both frames to gardaí.

Mr O’Conner accepted a suggestion in cross-examination from defence counsel, Mr Niall Durnin SC, that most paintings from the 18th Century would have had frames coated in this gold leaf.

The trial continues before Judge Michael White and a jury of eight men and four women.