A legal challenge by An Taisce alleging export licences were unlawfully issued by the National Gallery of Ireland for a number of valuable paintings has been settled.
The settlement terms include consent by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to a court declaration the Minister was not entitled to delegate to the National Gallery the ministerial power to issue such licences.
That delegation was made in 1985 by the then Minister for the Arts, a spokeswoman for the current Minister, Heather Humphreys, said in a statement after the court hearing. The Minister has taken steps to address the legal issues raised concerning the granting of export licences, the statement added.
Under the settlement,the Minister and the Gallery also consented to a further declaration that the granting of the export licences was made in excess of the authority of the Gallery under the Documents and Pictures (Regulation of Export) Act 1945.
The Minister has also agreed to pay the costs of the action.
Sara Moorhead SC, for An Taisce, told the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, she was happy to say the case had settled on those terms. Nuala Butler SC confirmed the Minister’s consent to the orders and to pay the costs.
The judge made the declarations sought and struck out the proceedings, initiated last month when some the paintings were due to be put up for sale at auction in London. Most were later withdrawn from auction.
After the case was initiated, An Taisce said it had clarified Portrait of a Monk, by Rubens, had been returned to Ireland. Two paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw were sold while several others, described as representing "very important examples" of Flemish, Dutch and Venetian art, were withdrawn from auction.
Previously, the court wad told the works are part of the collection of Sir Alfred Beit and include two oil sketches by Peter Paul Rubens, one entitled Head of a Bearded Man.
In an affidavit, John Loughman, senior lecturer in UCD’s School of Art, History and Cultural Policy, said the works are “part of Ireland’s rich cultural patrimony” and their loss to Ireland’s cultural heritage would be “enormous”.
In the action, An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, claimed 10 paintings were unlawfully exported out of Ireland last March in breach of the provisions of the 1945 Act. Its judicial review proceedings was brought against the Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland and the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
The Alfred Beit Foundation, and Christie, Manson and Woods Ltd, trading as Christie’s, of St James’, London, were also made notice parties to the proceedings.
An Taisce alleged a licence of March 16th, 2015 granted by the National Gallery of Ireland to the Irish branch of London-based fine art auction house Christie’s, acting as agent of the Afred Beit Foundation, Russborough House, Co Wicklow, for export of the paintings to the UK was made in excess of the powers of the Gallery.
The appropriate authority for the granting of such licences is the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and she has no power to delegate that authority, it was claimed.
Despite “numerous” requests for clarification about the alleged act of delegation, An Taisce said it had been unable to identify how that was achieved. It did not appear the delegation was achieved by primary or secondary legislation and the relevant paintings were unlawfully exported out of Ireland, it was claimed.
It was alleged that an EC Council Regulation of 2009 requires that paintings in the territory of a member state must be granted an export licence by that State. Where paintings are legally exported from one member state to another, the latter state is entitled to issue an export licence, it claims.
While three paintings at issue were previously exported to Hong Kong and New York, they were not granted an export licence from the Minister and were not legally exported to another member state, it was alleged.
