The National Gallery cannot afford to buy important Irish paintings which come on the market, its director, Mr Raymond Keaveney, has said.
Mr Keaveney was answering questions from the Committee of Public Accounts on the Vote for the National Gallery yesterday. Last year £2.1 million was voted by the Government for the running of the gallery. "We are not in the frame for many of the paintings we would wish to acquire," Mr Keaveney said. "Important Irish paintings which have come on the market recently have cost £600,000 to £700,000."
He told the committee the gallery raised about £1 million a year by its own efforts, which included the shop, the restaurant and sponsorship. In addition, it received money from the Lane and Shaw funds.
In response to a question from the committee chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, he said the National Gallery of New South Wales in Australia, which had about the same number of visitors, had a grant of between £4 million and £5 million. The National Gallery in Copenhagen had just completed a large extension, funded by the government, which cost £30 million.
The National Gallery was about to start a 45,000 sq ft extension in Clare Street, which would be completed in 2000 and which would cost £20 million, of which the Department of Finance was providing £2 million. However, he said the gallery needed that much space again to show all the pictures in its collection which should be shown, and an additional 10 or 12 staff.
"Is there anyone with any cultural interests at all in the Department of Finance?" Mr Mitchell asked Mr Roderick O'Mahony, who represented the department at the meeting. "The funding was set up at a time when we were not in such a buoyant position," Mr O'Mahony replied.