Ownership of 39 paintings collected by Hugh Lane in the early years of the 20th century is disputed because of a codicil to his will leaving the paintings to found a gallery of modern art in Dublin, writes the historian Roy Foster

In his review of the Impressionists show at the National Gallery (theguardian.com, 13 September), Jonathan Jones says Manet’s Music in the Tuileries Gardens “belongs to the National Gallery”. This may be true in the strict legal sense, but ownership of this and 38 other paintings collected by the Irish art dealer and philanthropist Hugh Lane in the early years of the 20th century has for many years been disputed because of a codicil to his will leaving the paintings to found a gallery of modern art in Dublin – but left unwitnessed when he was drowned on the Lusitania in 1915.

A parliamentary commission in 1926 admitted that Lane’s desire was clearly to leave the paintings to Dublin, but the National Gallery in London has always stood on the letter of the law, though for exhibition purposes the best of the paintings are shared by rota between London and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, a thriving and dynamic institution.

I discussed the issue in an article in the Guardian (A twist of fate?, Review, 30 May 2015). Lane, his collection and his intentions have recently been illuminated in Citizen Lane, a remarkable film directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, which has just been on general release in Ireland, and – one hopes – should be seen by British audiences too. The moral question of where the ownership should be vested is ripe for reopening.

Roy Foster

London

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