Galway returns important art collection

Galway City Council has handed back an important art collection lent by a philanthropist because the city had no municipal gallery in which to show it.

The collection – which included paintings by significant Irish artists Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry and Sir John Lavery – was returned to the estate of owner Peter Daly last April after lying unseen in storage for 23 years. Daly was a wealthy Irish art collector who lived on the Isle of Man.

The Irish Times has learned that the 27-piece collection has since been broken up and is being sold off in a series of public auctions overseas.

The collected works, paintings and sculptures were lent to Galway City Council (then known as the corporation) in 1989 with the proviso that they be displayed publicly.

Storage

The collection was temporarily displayed in the Bank of Ireland premises in Eyre Square in 1989, but was afterwards put into storage, where it remained.

Various proposals to build or create a municipal art gallery were mooted by councillors in Galway, but none came to fruition. Although a museum was built at Spanish Arch in the city, a spokeswoman for the council said the venue was deemed unsuitable for displaying the Daly collection because it “has only two rooms, which are used for rotating exhibitions”.

Daly died in the Isle of Man in 2006 and ownership of the collection was bequeathed to a trust he had established, known as the Daly Settlement.

The council contacted the trust’s legal representatives to end the loan because of ongoing insurance and storage costs. The paintings and sculptures were returned to the Isle of Man in April 2012.

The trust had not requested their return.

A spokeswoman for the Daly trust said the council “did not wish to renew the loan” and that “the collection had been in storage for some time as they did not have anywhere to display [it]”, and also that “the beneficiaries of the settlement” had subsequently decided “to proceed with the sale of the artworks”.

Christie’s

The pieces have now started to appear at auction in London. It is unknown how much of the collection has been sold, but two paintings were disposed of at Christie’s last month.

A Paul Henry west of Ireland landscape titled Roadside Cottages below Mweelrea Mountain sold for £100,850 while Sir John Lavery’s The Green Hammock made £79,250.

The Daly collection also included paintings by Irish artists Roderic O’Conor, Walter Frederick Osborne, George Russell (also known as AE), Leo Whelan and Jack B Yeats; equestrian paintings by the English artist Sir Alfred Munnings and Japanese bronze sculptures.

Little is known about Daly. Sources in Galway say he was originally from Ballinrobe, Co Mayo.

A death notice published in Britain’s Daily Telegraph in 2006 indicated that the 84-year-old widower “late of Renville Hall, Oranmore, Co Galway” had died in the Isle of Man and was survived by four daughters.