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Wiesenthal Centre Response to Irish President

Irish President, Mary McAleese, used a visit to the Hunt Museum in Limerick to criticize the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

The Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, stated that it was his letter to President McAleese in 2004 that had first drawn public attention to questions surrounding the background of the late John and Gertrude Hunt's contact with dealers in Nazi looted art. Samuels' letter called on the President to withdraw the Irish Museum Award and to launch an independent investigation into the Hunts and the provenance of the collection that bears their name. The Wiesenthal Centre had requested access to the archives in order to assist in the investigation.

The statement continued, "over the last four years, the Irish authorities conferred this investigation first upon the Hunt Museum itself, then upon an Oversight Committee that was rapidly disbanded, then the Royal Irish Academy and, finally an American expert for comment. The Wiesenthal Centre's researchers were excluded throughout this process and the terms of reference for the investigation were narrowly focused upon the collection rather than the Hunts themselves. The report consequently ignored key documents, as was in fact substantiated by the American expert, Lynn Nicholas, in her comments."

The Wiesenthal Centre considered the President's remarks as "uncalled-for" and "unfitting to her office". "Indeed, several Irish media were reminded by them of an earlier incident when, speaking on Auschwitz, she had compared the Unionists of Northern Ireland to the Nazis."

Samuels noted that "the Wiesenthal Centre was currently completing a carefully documented shadow report that identified sources ignored by the Irish authorities. This would be submitted in the following weeks."

"We hope that the President will then reconsider and grant justice to the name of a man who had made justice a categorical imperative", concluded Samuels.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58