The Irish Times today responded to the Simon Wiesenthal press release sent yesterday to unveil an investigative report written by Irish Museum consultant Erin Gibbons
.
It is a report the Hunt Museum would rather not read as it once again casts suspicion or 'shadows' on the Hunt Collection's sources and provenances. Published yesterday, The Hunt Controversy, a Shadow Report takes issue with media reports
that said the earlier reports "cleared" the Hunts of dealing in wartime
loot.
In The Hunt Controversy, Ms Gibbons says the concerns of the Wiesenthal Centre appear legitimate and measured. In her 165-page report, Ms Gibbons re-examines the military files and points to what she says are shortcomings in the two reports.
In addition, the report investigates connections of the Hunt family with Ireland- based Nazi Chief Adolf Mahr, pro Hitler aristocrats in the United Kingdom; a series of dealers in looted art; the Allied strategic trans-Atlantic flying-boat station in County Limerick: Jewish art dealers in Germany, desperate to get to neutral Ireland- it sounds like a detective novel.
Ms Gibbons said a full independent investigation was necessary to establish the provenance of the 2,000 objects on display in the Limerick museum.
I could have sworn that is EXACTLY what Lynn Nicholas recommended in her report- But I must have read the one that the rest of the media deleted from their coverage of that story.
