Vol. 466 No. 7
40 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the steps, if any, he proposes to initiate to seek to recover items of artistic value on behalf of the National Gallery of Ireland in view of the fact that the owner of the wreck of the Lusitania has now been legally determined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12154/96]
It will be recalled that in the spring of 1995 there were media reports concerning the wreck of the Lusitania, to the effect that a number of valuable paintings had been taken on board the ship for transport to Ireland by Sir Hugh Lane, the then Director of the National Gallery. It was speculated that these paintings — which were named — had survived intact on the seabed in lead cylinders. I immediately initiated an investigation into the matter. Some circumstantial evidence exists to indicate that a painting, once attributed to Rubens but later assessed as a workshop production from the “School of Van Dyck” may have been on board the Lusitania but, if so, this would have been the property of another passenger, a Mr. Williamson. The main evidence available is a copy of the ship's manifest indicating that Sir Hugh Lane had a case of oil paintings on board. No evidence could be found to substantiate the claim that the paintings were stored in lead cylinders.
The investigations which I initiated show that there is no foundation in fact for the media reports concerning named paintings. All were found to have been sold to persons other than Sir Hugh Lane. Several are currently in public collections, including a painting by Titian entitled "Man with a Hawk".
