An Italian masterpiece stolen in a daylight raid on Russborough House gallery in Co Wicklow last year was yesterday recovered by detectives.
Officers from the Arts and Antiquities Unit of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation retrieved Bernardo Bellotto's View of Florence, conservatively valued at €2m, along with a second piece, Gainsborough's Madame Baccelli, at a house in south Dublin.
Gardaí said they uncovered the paintings as part of an "ongoing" investigation into the June 2001 robbery on Russborough House, home to the €40m Beit Foundation collection.
Both had been removed from their frames and rolled up, causing superficial damage, but gardaí said they were generally in "good condition".
The paintings have been delivered to the National Gallery in Dublin and are undergoing a series of tests to assess their condition after their time in criminal hands.
They were stolen by armed criminals who rammed a Volkswagen Golf through the front door of Russborough House, an act described by senior gardaí as a "mad escapade".
A man was later arrested and has been charged in relation to the robbery. A number of files are being forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
It was the third occasion the Beit Foundation has been targeted by thieves, and the third time that the Bellotto was stolen.
In 1986, a gang led by the notorious Dublin criminal Martin "The General" Cahill escaped with 18 paintings, but was forced to abandon them when they proved impossible to sell on the black market.
Earlier this year, detectives acting on a tip-off recovered a Rubens taken by Cahill, at a house in north Dublin. All but two of the pieces stolen by his gang have now been found.
In 1974, a provisional IRA unit, including British heiress Rose Dugdale, broke into Russborough House and held its occupants captive while helping itself to 19 paintings from the Beit Collection.
Unable to find buyers, they abandoned the paintings in a Co Cork bog.
Last night, the National Gallery's head curator, Mr Sergio Benedetti, said the Bellotto and the Gainsborough were slightly damaged.
It would be several months at the earliest before they went back on display, he said.
Mr Benedetti added: "The pieces are not perfect. They suffered because they were rolled up. But it is too early to assess the extent of the damage."
The Beit Foundation was established in the early 1970s by Sir Alfred Beit, a former British MP and son of a wealthy diamond magnate who had amassed a priceless collection of art which was kept at Russborough House.