Madam, - Your political reporter Arthur Beesley quoted a letter from Dr Samuels of the Wiesenthal Foundation stating that "sources" had indicated that the Hunts had "close personal ties with Adolf Mahr, the Austrian Nazi who was director of the National Museum" (The Irish Times, February 7th).
A week later, your Artscape column pointed out that Mahr had left the country before the outbreak of the war, and therefore before the Hunts came to Ireland in 1940.
The link thus seems to be as unfounded and irrelevant as many of the other allegations in your string of articles last week that tarnished the Hunts' good name, and have caused untold personal and institutional hurt and damage.
Of course, it is possible that the Hunts might have acquired some material from former Jewish collections in the immediate post-War years, while in no way realising what its source or provenance was - as doubtless did many others too at the time. But that does not make them "part of a network of Nazi war-loot dealers" as Erin Gibbons believes (This Week They Said, February 14th).
What we have been treated to is, in the words of Mairead Dunlevy, "suggestions of guilt by association". Neither Dr Samuels nor his undisclosed "sources" have come up with a whit of proof to support the damaging remarks and, until they do, we should lend no credence to their claims. Innuendoes abound, yet evidence is lacking.
During the last years of his life, I worked closely with John Hunt on his great book Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture, and never encountered the slightest hint of Nazi sympathies either from himself or his generous and hospitable wife Putzel. What your reporter failed to do was to balance his negative stance with positive remarks pointing out how magnanimous the Hunts had been in presenting their fabulous - and now fabulously-displayed - collection to be held in trust for the Irish people, including important prehistoric Irish antiquities repatriated from England at great personal expense.
Nor did last week's article allude to what a boon the Hunt-inspired Craggaunowen project had been to more than a whole generation of Irish schoolteachers and children. Instead of having awards taken away, the Hunts should have them heaped high upon them for their many benefactions.
Truly are we a nation of begrudgers, so let us instead celebrate - and not undeservedly vilify - the Hunts' good name and all they have done for Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Dr PETER HARBISON, Loughshinny, Co Dublin.