Reality bites

THE decision by the Alfred Beit Foundation, which runs Russborough House in Wicklow, to sell paintings by Rubens and other old masters to raise funds to maintain the house is not the first time such a crossroads has been reached.

Like any institution, individual or family, the State may not always have the resources it needs to do the things it might like to do and no matter how magnificent the works of art involved are, it would seem at least inappropriate to spend millions on paintings while so many pressing needs go unanswered.

That assertion would, in earlier times, have drawn accusations of philistinism, but in the digital age access to great art is no longer a matter of presence or geography.

It is nevertheless unfortunate that the paintings, left in trust for the people of Ireland by Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, cannot be secured.

Minister for Arts and Heritage Heather Humphreys has said she did not have the funds to buy the paintings.

This reality points to a failing far greater than any reluctant inability to secure masterwork paintings for the people of Ireland.

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