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Belgians praised for safe return of stolen Beit paintings linked to Martin ‘the General’ Cahill

The theft of 17 old masters paintings was the largest art robbery in the history of the State, with the paintings conservatively valued at over IR£30m.

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Irish authorities were effusive in their praise of their Belgian counterparts after a sting operation resulted in the recovery of a number of paintings stolen from Russborough House in Wicklow in 1986.

The theft of 17 old masters paintings was the largest art robbery in the history of the State, with the paintings conservatively valued at over IR£30m.

Secret documents released as part of the State Archives revealed Irish officials were eager to have the paintings returned to Ireland from Belgium as quickly as possible.

On December 13, 1993, Belgian prosecutor Michel Jordens wrote to the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs in Ireland over the recovery of a number of suspected stolen paintings.

He indicated that four men had been detained by the Belgian authorities: Desmond Geraghty with an address in London, Cornelius Niall Mulvihill from Dublin, Damien O’Brien from Dublin, Milan Marcovic from Yugoslavia and Jean Marie Leemans, who was living in Belgium but was originally from Zaire.

Mr Jordens wrote that on July 23. 1993, Cornelius Mulvihill displayed a suspected Vermeer painting, The Letter Writer, from the boot of his car.

Further meetings were set up and other paintings were displayed with a view to selling them.

Belgian police then intervened at an address near Antwerp Airport and a total of eight works of art were seized.

Mr Jordens wrote that these included Dona by Goya, Princess by Vestier, the Vermeer and Letter Writer by Metsu.

The Belgian official said that after consulting over the works seized, it was believed that they were among the artworks stolen from the Alfred Beit Foundation at Russborough House on May 20/21 1986.

All the artworks involved belonged to the National Gallery in Dublin after they had been gifted to the State by the Beit Foundation.

Mr Jordens said the Belgian authorities now wanted proof in the form of an affidavit that the works mentioned were stolen; if any of those detained in Belgian were among the suspects in Ireland; to obtain the garda records of all those in custody in Belgium; and to ask the director of chief restorer of the National Gallery to travel to Belgium to examine the recovered works and verify their authenticity. A further memo from the Irish Embassy in Brussels confirmed that the Belgian authorities indicated all the paintings involved would be returned to Ireland once it was legally permitted to do so in light of the ongoing prosecutions.

A letter dated September 16, 1993 confirmed that senior conservator of the National Gallery, Andrew O’Connor, had visited Antwerp and had inspected the paintings.

Mr O’Connor later had dinner at the Irish Embassy to brief diplomats on the condition of the artworks.

“He expressed relief that the pictures were in relatively good shape,” it noted.

“He said that the police authorities in Antwerp had been quite cooperative.”

Irish diplomats noted that for the paintings to be returned, a formal request from senior Government officials would have to be made through diplomatic channels to the Belgian authorities.

Once the criminal proceedings were concluded in Belgium, the return of the paintings would be automatic.

A number of the Beit paintings were also recovered from London.

Two were found by Scotland Yard detectives: one hidden behind furniture in a house in Hertfordshire and the second in a left luggage room at Euston Station.

One of those paintings was a Rubens valued at IR£4m. Another painting was recovered by police in Turkey.

The robbery at Russborough House was masterminded by Dublin criminal Martin ‘The General’ Cahill, who had thought the artworks could be readily sold on the black market for cash.