The commission examining claims that some of the Hunt Museum collection in Limerick may have been looted by the Nazis has made only "preliminary" inquiries in the six months since its appointment, it emerged yesterday.
The retired Supreme Court judge who is chairing the commission, Mr Justice Donal Barrington, said the detailed investigation into the allegations by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre had yet to begin in earnest because its terms of reference were still being worked out.
Despite the delay, a spokesman for the Minister for Arts, Mr O'Donoghue, said his Department expected that the commission would submit its report before the end of the autumn. He had no comment to make on the commission's terms of reference.
The Paris office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which made the allegations last January in letter to the President, Mrs McAleese, has so far refused to release any evidence to back up its claims.
The anti-Nazi organisation has alleged that the late Mr John Hunt and his late wife Gertrude, who amassed the museum collection, had "intimate business relationships with notorious dealers in art looted by the Nazis".
While the Hunt Museum was to fund the commission chaired by Mr Barrington, he said yesterday that its members wanted another body to pay for the work so that the inquiry could be seen to be independent.
This was important given the sensitivity surrounding the allegations, he said.
"The basis on which the thing is to be set up is an issue at the moment. The basic problem is that when we agreed to act, we all agreed to act on the basis that it would be an independent commission. We thought we wouldn't be seen to be an independent commission if the museum was paying for the work."
Mr Barrington declined to speculate when he expected an agreement on the terms of reference and declined to reveal what bodies were in discussion with the commission. Confirming that the commission had made only preliminary enquiries so far, he said he had expected the work to proceed more quickly than it had.
The family of the late John and Gertrude Hunt have said the allegations of Nazi links are without foundation. Friends and former colleagues of the couple have also disputed the claims.
