Recovered paintings undamaged

The five paintings stolen from Russborough House in September have been recovered, four of them in such good condition that they "could go back on display tomorrow", according to the director of the National Gallery, Mr Raymond Keaveney.

However, a decision on where to put the paintings collected by the late Sir Alfred Beit back on display will not be made by the Beit Foundation until well into the new year, he said.

The foundation must decide whether to hang the paintings in Russborough House in Co Wicklow, from which paintings have been stolen four times in the past 28 years, when it reopens at Easter. For security reasons it may decide that a more secure location, such as the National Gallery, is needed.

Mr Keaveney insisted that no decision had been taken. "Russborough does what a gallery cannot do. It allows us to show these masterpieces in an original setting in a great house," he said.

"It would be an awful shame if we have reached the situation where paintings cannot be put on display for security reasons."

Mr Keaveney, who is a member of the foundation, said he did not want to profit from the "embarrassment" of the foundation following this year's two robberies. If it wished to lend the paintings to the gallery this offer would be considered.

He pointed out that galleries in the middle of Amsterdam and Stockholm had recently been robbed, so problems with the theft of art were not confined to country houses.

Gardaí found the stolen paintings hidden in the attic of a house in Clondalkin on Friday night. They were put on display at Garda headquarters in Harcourt Square on Saturday by the Assistant Commissioner, Mr Joe Egan, accompanied by Mr Keaveney. A couple in their 30s was arrested in the house.

The five paintings, including two Rubens, had been stolen in a dawn raid on Russborough House last September. The recovery of the jeep a short time later gave gardaí their first clues and led to an investigation centring on Tallaght and Clondalkin.