Truce in century-long row between Ireland and UK over Hugh Lane’s paintings

The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and London’s National Gallery have agreed on a new partnership around the 39 paintings in the Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, which have been the subject of a 100-year-old row following Hugh Lane’s contested will.

The 10-year partnership is a truce in the long-running dispute, allowing the public in both Ireland and Britain to continue enjoying the works.

A statement by Dublin City Council on Friday said “in moving on from previous agreements made during the past 50 years, the two galleries are now committed to working in partnership regarding the care and display of these paintings in a spirit of collegiality”.

The new partnership involves a decade of continued sharing and rotating of the paintings. This time 10 paintings will rotate in two groups of five, for five years in each location. Two works will remain in London. The works will now all be labelled “Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, The National Gallery, London. In partnership with the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin”.

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The galleries are also partnering on the care, display, preservation and promotion of the paintings.

The Cork-born art collector Hugh Lane, who established Dublin’s Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, died on the Lusitania in May 1915. He left his collection of 39 modern paintings - including works by Renoir, Manet, Mancini, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Vuillard and Degas - to the National Gallery, London. However, soon after his death, a codicil to his will was found in Lane’s desk at the National Gallery of Ireland, where he was director, leaving the pictures to Ireland instead. They were to form the core of the gallery he established in Dublin in 1908, now known as the Hugh Lane Gallery.

London claimed them, sparking a row that has continued, punctuated by various compromises and agreements, over the decades.

The new partnership “underpins the collegial relationship that has developed between the two institutions,” said Hugh Lane Gallery director Dr Barbara Dawson. “Importantly, it acknowledges the history and the role of the Hugh Lane Gallery in the provenance of these paintings and means that people in both countries can continue to enjoy Sir Hugh’s celebrated bequest.”

London’s National Gallery director Dr Gabriele Finald said “Hugh Lane wanted people in Dublin and London to enjoy and appreciate ‘modern continental painting’,” and the agreement enable people in both countries to enjoy the paintings he donated.

Since Lane’s death there have been agreements about the disputed paintings. In the late 1950s, Sir Denis Mahon (1910-2011) - a National Gallery trustee of Irish descent - undertook to find a compromise where the two institutions would share access. The first agreement in 1959 saw the paintings divided in two groups, alternating between the two institutions until 1979. For over 40 years, 27 paintings from the Lane Bequest have been on long-term loan to Dublin.

From 1993, eight great French masterpieces rotated between London and Dublin, four at a time on a six-year cycle. The final four paintings remained in London.