The charitable trust in charge of the Beit collection at Russborough House is to meet on Thursday to discuss what measures can be taken to deter further robberies of its artwork.
Mr Raymond Keaveney, director of the National Gallery and a member of the board of the trust, said yesterday that one aspect of the discussions would be whether to shut the house until security arrangements had been improved. However, he stressed, "closing the place down would be the last case scenario. The terms of the trust would be to keep it open."
The security review follows the fourth theft of artwork from Russborough, and the second in the past 15 months. Five pictures, conservatively valued at more than €10 million, were stolen last Sunday morning by raiders who broke into the house by ramming a rear glass door entrance with a four-wheel drive vehicle.
Mr Keaveney said security arrangements had been "significantly enhanced" after the last robbery in June 2001. "Advice was sought. Advice was given. Advice was acted upon." However, he said, "there is a limit you can achieve with security and no system is absolutely impregnable."
The trust, which is funded principally through a private endowment, is already engaged in a major refurbishment scheme for Russborough, and as a result, any new security measures will add on it an extra financial burden.
Mr Keaveney noted "if recommendations [on security] are beyond the resources we will have to look at how to manage the situation."
It is understood the trust may seek to apply for State funding to improve security at the house, and in the interim could move a number of its more valuable works to the National Gallery for safety.
"Everything will be considered," said Mr Keaveney. "The whole point about Russborough is that it's there for the public benefit. It's a counterpart to the gallery. I think we can't be closing down the big houses and taking collections out. It would be wrong. It would be a surrender."
The gallery's curator, Mr Sergio Benedetti, said he believed it was now "a responsibility of the State" to ensure the collection was secure.
Speaking in a personal capacity, he also raised the possibility of the management of the collection becoming "a branch of the National Gallery of Ireland".
He said: "After four robberies I think there is a moral obligation and responsibility to do something.
"The entire collection was donated to the country and it's the most important works of art ever received by the country."
The collection was placed under trust in 1976 by Lady Beit and her late husband Sir Alfred Beit, a former British MP and son of Otto Beit who, with his older brother, amassed a fortune from diamond and gold-mining in South Africa.
The Beits moved to Russborough in 1952 and Lady Beit still lives there, although she was in London at the weekend when the latest robbery took place.
The Beit collection is insured for around €40 million. However, this is regarded as a major under-valuation.
Last July, a painting by Rubens was sold in London for €79.2 million in a record for a British auction.
Last Sunday's haul included two pictures by Rubens, Venus Supplicating Jupiter and Portrait of A Dominican Monk, the latter of which had previously been stolen in 1986 but subsequently recovered.
Mr Benedetti noted the stolen paintings would be impossible to sell on the open market.
"They cannot be traded in any possible way because they are all very well known.
"The paintings are published in several books and no dealers, no collectors, no museums will ever purchase any of these paintings."
