Couple charged over Irish art theft

Russborough House has been targetted before

A couple have been charged with handling five stolen paintings which were stolen from a stately home in County Wicklow, Ireland in September.

Thomas Douglas, 52, and his wife Noeleen, 45, from Clondalkin, west Dublin, will appear before Dublin District Court on Monday.

The five masterpieces were found by police on Friday night, nearly three months after they disappeared from Russborough House, the stately home of the late South African diamond millionaire, Sir Alfred Beit.

It was the fourth time thieves had targeted the house, south of Dublin, which is open to the public.

Old Masters

The stolen works included two by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of A Dominican Monk, and Venus Supplicating Jupiter.

The others were Willem van der Velde the Younger's Calm Sea, Adrian van Ostade's Adoration of The Shepherds and Jacob van Ruisdael's The Corn Field.

Both The Corn Field and Portrait of A Dominican Monk were stolen previously in 1986 and returned seven years later.

Sir Alfred, a former British MP whose wealth came from South African gold mines and diamond dealing, inherited a collection of Old Masters and in 1952 he bought and restored Russborough House to house them.

He died in 1994, eight years after donating part of his priceless collection to Ireland's National Gallery.