Raider's gloves left at scene may help recover paintings

A pair of plastic gloves left behind after the theft of two valuable paintings from Russ borough House yesterday may be the key to their recovery, according to gardai.

The two pictures, Madame Baccelli: Dancer by Thomas Gainsborough and View of Florence Looking Towards the Ponte Vecchio by Bernardo Bellotto, were stolen in a three-minute raid on the 18th-century house near Blessington, Co Wicklow.

They are valued at £3 million, and were almost certainly stolen to order.

It was the third major robbery at Russborough. In 1974 an IRA gang stole 19 paintings, all later recovered, and in 1986 a gang of Dublin criminals led by Martin Cahill stole 18 art works, three of which were never recovered. The Gainsborough stolen yesterday had been taken in the previous two robberies.

Chief Supt Sean Feely of Naas said there had been "a lot of bungling" in yesterday's raid, and he was confident the paintings would be recovered.

A pair of worn plastic gloves and a box of plastic gloves were left in the jeep the three raiders used to ram the front door. They tried to burn the jeep before escaping, but the gloves and the box failed to burn. One of the raiders is thought to have worn the gloves when taking down the paintings.

There are also likely to be fibres from the raiders' clothing on the seats and floor of the jeep, Chief Supt Feely said.

The raid was at about 12.40 p.m. when three men drove up the avenue in a Mitsubishi Pajero jeep and a light blue Volkswagen Golf. They drove the jeep up 20 or so steps to the front door and rammed it.

The men took the two paintings from the music room and left in the Golf. The magnetic alarms on the paintings alerted gardai in Naas immediately.

The raiders then tried to hijack a car driven by a local man, who refused to give them his keys. One of them fired a pistol shot, which gardai say could provide ballistics evidence. They drove on to Russelstown Park by Blessington Lake where they set the Golf on fire. It is not clear how they left there.

A large Garda search operation started, with 12 checkpoints set up and two helicopters deployed.

The raid was timed, say gardai, to coincide with the end of the 11.45 a.m. tour of the house. No members of the public were in the house, where there were about 20 staff. Mr Niall Cummins, Lady Beit's driver, was passing the house when the jeep was ramming the door. He said it was all over in about three minutes. He said he ran into the souvenir shop at the side of the house to raise the alarm.

Lady Beit, who is in her mid-80s, was in the private residence. Chief Supt Feely said she was "in good form considering what has happened".