A total of 39 paintings including works from well-known artists such as Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry and Sir William Orpen, have been donated to the State by AIB.
Twelve of the artworks are being transferred to the State immediately with a further 27 to be given over the next two years.
The paintings are form part of the permanent collection of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork An exhibition featuring some of the works being donated will be opened by Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan at the gallery early next month.
Mr Deenihan welcomed AIB's donation and said the bank, which is 99.8 per cent State owned, had also agreed to make an additional 1,000 pieces from its collection available for loan to publicly funded galleries.
"The AIB Collection is the pinnacle of “wise and knowledgeable connoisseurship” and as such is a valuable addition to the National Collection," he said."
The collection includes a number of highly-regarded works including A Race in Hy Brazil by Jack B Yeats and Red Rocks at Pont Aven by Roderic O'Conor.
The works being donated all date from either the late nineteenth century or the twentieth century and also include works by artists such as Gerard Dillon, William Leech, John Luke, Maurice MacGonigal Walter Osborne, Sean Keating, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Collins and William Crozier.
AIB's corporate art collection consists of over 3,000 works of art and is estimated to be worth between €10 million and €12 million.
“The AIB art collection is more than a group of paintings and sculptures originally intended to enhance bank premises. From the beginning a view and a vision of Irish life and culture that extended beyond financial matters was evident in the bank’s ethos,” said the gallery's chairman John R Bowen.
Crawford director Peter Murray said that the donation marked an important step in the development of the Crawford Art Gallery as a national cultural institution, and as one of the foremost museums of Irish art.
Artsworks to be donated:
Jack B. Yeats - A Race in Hy Brazil
Séan Keating - On the Run - War of Independence
William Scott - Blue Still Life with Knife
John Luke - The Lock at Edenderry
Mary Swanzy - Samoan Scene
Jack B. Yeats - Now or Never
Paul Henry - Lough Altan, County Donegal
Roderic O'Conor - Red Rocks Near Pont-Aven
Walter Osborne - A November Morning
F.E. McWilliam - Woman in a Bomb Blast
Jack B. Yeats - Shelling Peas in Moore Street
Patrick Collins - A Place with Stones
Gerard Dillon - Cut Out Drop Out
Patrick Collins - Travelling Tinkers
Colin Middleton - Moonlight Ballyholme
Roderic O'Conor - Anemones
William Leech - Chrysanthemums
Séan Keating - West of Ireland Quayside with figures
Colin Middleton - Winter: Camden Street
Harry Kernoff - Sunny Day, Dublin
William Leech - Studio Garden
Tony O'Malley - Big White Flower Pot
Mainie Jellett - Composition with 3 Elements
Maurice MacGonigal - Races Ballyconneely, County Galway
Aloysius O'Kelly - Corpus Christi Procession
Colin Middleton - Market Day
William Crozier - Walking to the Sea
Harry Kernoff - The Forty Foot, Sandycove
Joseph Malachy Kavanagh - Cockle Pickers
Nathaniel Hill - Goosegirl in a Breton Farmyard
Patrick Collins - Bog Country
Tony O'Malley - Ripe Cornfield in the Wind
Sir William Orpen - The Boxer
Gerard Dillon - Still Life
William Crozier - The River Boundary (Lough Hyne)
Sir John Lavery - Habiba
Grace Henry - Claddagh Market
Micheal Farrell - Au Soleil D'Or
Evie Hone - Landscape, Co. Wicklow
