Sir, – Clearly the sale is a last resort by the Alfred Beit Foundation (ABF) trustees. Sadly they approached the Government in the last few years, but did not fully engage with the wider community that could have found solutions. As things stand, the world will look on and say, “That’s Ireland for you, easy come, easy go”, and nobody else will ever leave anything to “the Irish people”.
The Government represents the Irish people, and must act now. It can weigh up the Beits’ gifts, now worth well over €100 million, against the cost of subsidising Russborough for four years, about €1.5 million. Why four years? That is the lead-in time needed to launch a world art tour.
The National Gallery of Ireland also needs to raise money, and so the most elegant solution now is to select the best of both Beit collections for a tour starting in 2019.
The Iveagh Bequest collection at Kenwood House in north London was sent on a similar tour in 2012, and raised a large amount for restoring the building. However it only had a two-year lead-in time, which meant that many of the busier American museums could not show it; four years secures the most profitable venues.
I imagine that if the State were running Russborough the subsidy to cover any shortfall on receipts might well be higher than what the ABF is losing now. The ABF has done a good job over the decades, and its board cannot trade insolvently. Money has to be found, and if the sales are to be stopped the money must be found by the State.
Perhaps the ABF could give something to the State in lieu of the €1.5 million, so that the subsidy appears less of a gift. But someone needs to make things happen now, to bang heads together and to call Christie’s, and the only person who can do all that is Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK GUINNESS,
Naas, Co Kildare.