Hunt continues after £3m art theft from Russborough House

Garda checkpoints remain in place in the area around Russborough House in Co Wicklow tonight as the search for at least three armed men who stole two paintings worth over £3 million continues.

Madame Baccelliby Thomas Gainsborough

They got away with Gainsborough's

Madam Baccelli

, which has an estimated value of IR£2 million and Belotto's

Scene of Florence

.

Garda Chief Superintendent Sean Feely said: "They fired a shot in an attempt to hijack a car, but the motorist refused to hand over his vehicle.

"There were people in the house at the time of the robbery, but no one was hurt."

In 1974, an IRA gang that included British heiress Dr Rose Dugdale, stole 19 paintings - then valued at IR£8 million - from Russborough, then the home of former Conservative MP Sir Alfred Beit, a member of the de Beers diamond family, and his wife.

The couple were bound and gagged during the raid and the pictures were later found in Co Cork. Dugdale and others involved in the raid were afterwards jailed for the robbery.

In 1986, a 13-strong gang headed by Dublin criminal Martin Cahill - stole 18 works, including some of those taken and recovered in the earlier incident.

The paintings that were taken then included works by Vermeer, Metsu, Goya, Gainsborough and Rubens.

All but three of those pictures turned up over a period of years in a number of locations, including London and Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey after apparently unsuccessful attempts to sell them.

The Gainsborough stolen today was also taken in the 1986 raid.

Mr Raymond Keaveney, the Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, described the latest theft as "an outrage".

Additional reporting PA