Sir, – How pleasing it would have been to be reassured by the recent article in The Irish Times that the haemorrhaging of artworks from Russborough House had at last been staunched, that the declaration of the patient's stable condition could be accepted with relief, and a healthy prognosis for the house and its collection entertained with confidence ("Sale of old masters saves Russborough House", December 19th).
Sadly, this is far from being the case. The Alfred Beit Foundation has tied the “long-term viability” of the estate to its capacity to put together an endowment fund of €15 million.
Can this ambitious fundraising goal ever have been a realistic prospect?
How much of the contents of the house would need to be sold to realise it? In any event, after several bouts of art-letting, the foundation has managed to accumulate only €7 million, a sum described as securing the house for the “foreseeable future”. With less than half the target amount realised, the patient must remain under intensive observation.
Does the foundation now expect the State to provide the balance of €8 million for its endowment? The State’s contribution in terms of taxes foregone is already substantial. The two recently sold paintings now in the National Gallery were donated by purchasers who received tax relief of 80 per cent of the works’ value, amounting to a tax write-off of €4.4 million.
All told, the foundation’s cumulative expectations of State support are very substantial indeed. If we are to draw a line under the lamentable loss of several masterpieces in recent sales, any agreement by the State to fund the hole in the endowment, whether wholly or substantially, must be accompanied by cast-iron guarantees on the inalienable status of the remaining contents of Russborough, and changes in corporate governance to ensure a much higher level of public control over the estate’s destiny would also be desirable.
Of course, there is no guarantee whatever that the State will assume that level of responsibility for Russborough’s liabilities, leaving the house’s remaining contents very much in jeopardy of being sold off at some time in the all-too foreseeable future. – Yours, etc,
CARLA BRIGGS,
PAT COOKE,
Dr PHILIP COTTRELL,
Dr NICOLA FIGGIS,
Prof KATHLEEN
JAMES-CHAKRABORTY,
Dr ROISIN KENNEDY,
Dr JOHN LOUGHMAN,
Dr EMILY
MARK-FITZGERALD,
Dr LYNDA MULVIN,
School of Art History
and Cultural Policy,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4.