{"id":244827,"date":"2025-12-21T20:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/244827\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T20:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:20:09","slug":"office-of-public-works-missing-37-artworks-from-state-collection-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/244827\/","title":{"rendered":"Office of Public Works \u2018missing\u2019 37 artworks from State collection \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirty-seven State-owned artworks that have gone missing range in value between \u20ac100 and \u20ac1,150, according to the Office of Public Works<\/a> (OPW), which manages the collection.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said the majority are priced at under \u20ac500. However, he declined to release details of the individual works because the \u201ccollection audit process is still ongoing\u201d and it \u201cwould be premature to release details\u201d before the process \u201cis fully complete\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments follow revelations in a parliamentary reply to Social Democrats<\/a> Kildare North TD Aidan Farrelly the 37 works were \u201cunlocated\u201d. They are part of the State art collection of 13,500 paintings, sculpture and other works on display in almost 500 buildings.<\/p>\n

Mr Farrelly said, however, \u201cif there are 37 pieces missing from an audit of 2,600 and they have a total of 13,500 in their collection, it\u2019s probably reasonable to expect there\u2019s potentially up to a few hundred pieces unlocated if not more than that \u2013 essentially missing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minister of State for the OPW Kevin \u2018Boxer\u2019 Moran<\/a> said the collection is managed by the OPW\u2019s Art Management Office, and \u201c19 in-person collection audits and 37 digital collections audits were undertaken in 2025\u201d. <\/p>\n

Some 2,633 pieces were audited and \u201cfrom these collection audits, 37 artworks were categorised on the collection management system as unlocated\u201d.<\/p>\n

He described the collection as a \u201cunique cultural entity\u201d including works \u201cof historic significance and contemporary works by emerging artists in the early stages of their careers\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Moran said \u201cevery artwork in the State Art Collection is given a unique number and photographed before it is placed on display in client buildings\u201d. <\/p>\n

Once an artwork \u201cis noted as unlocated, the Art Management Office engages with clients in the relevant building to identify the current location. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Art Management Office also conducts a further analysis into the record history of unlocated artworks, including the length of time for which they remain unaccounted for, with the purpose of locating the works.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no policy to value the collection financially as a whole and this is in line with other national collections, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancial valuations are only undertaken on individual artworks where there is a need to insure them when they are placed on loan to external third parties or exhibitions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of the State art collection is measured by its cultural and heritage significance, not its financial value, and therefore fluctuations in the art market do not alter its value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Farrelly said \u201cit makes no sense to me that they\u2019re not having a valuation on that. There\u2019s an intrinsic value to these pieces, irrespective of whether they\u2019re in State ownership or third-party ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these pieces were robbed from an OPW site, am I wrong to assume that they\u2019re not insured while they\u2019re on an OPW premises. The valuation is only taken when they\u2019re put out to a third party, for insurance purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expressed concern, \u201cif you don\u2019t have a valuation on them and you can\u2019t keep stock of them or a percentage of them maybe it\u2019s time to reach out to people who have a specific expertise in this\u201d.<\/p>\n

He asked, \u201cdoes it stop with the art work? When it comes to the OPW or any other State body, if there\u2019s an issue in one area, does this extend to vehicles in their stock? Does it extend to IT infrastructure in their stock?\u201d<\/p>\n

The OPW spokesman said, \u201caccording to best practice collection management standards, financial valuations should not generally be applied to public collections as a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe State art collection is a unique and irreplaceable asset whose intrinsic value lies in its cultural and social significance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty-seven State-owned artworks that have gone missing range in value between \u20ac100 and \u20ac1,150, according to the Office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,106156,11,12,15,16,5,105969,18578,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-244827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-kevin-boxer-moran","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-office-of-public-works","23":"tag-social-democrats","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115759416829513829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}