A letter of surrender written by Patrick Pearse, which failed to sell at auction earlier this month, will not be licenced for export for 12 months, the Minister for Arts and Heritage has said.
Heather Humphreys said she has added the letter, which is privately owned by an unnamed individual overseas, to the Register of Cultural Objects, under Section 48 of the National Cultural Institutions Act.
No other privately held object has ever been placed on the register and, to date, the only objects on it are paintings belonging to the National Gallery of Ireland.
The legislation requires that owners of objects on the register must apply for a licence before taking the objects out of the country. The Minister cannot refuse to grant the licence, but she can require that it not be exported for a year.
Withdrawn from sale
The letter, written by Pearse in his prison cell on April 30th, 1916, shortly after his surrender to Brig Gen William Lowe, had a guide price of between €1 million and €1.5 million at Adam’s Auction House in Dublin. But it was withdrawn from sale on December 7th, when bidding stopped at €770,000.
There were protests at the auction. And separately, the Capuchin Franciscan Order had said the letter had disappeared from its archive without authorisation.
It was originally in the possession of Fr Columbus Murphy, who received it from Pearse, before being given to the order’s provincial superior.
In a statement on Monday evening, Ms Humphreys said the price being sought for the letter had been too high, especially since other Pearse letters were already held by the National Library, the National Museum and the National Archives.
‘Space and time’
Adding the letter to the register, which she did last Friday night, provided “some space and time, when other potential buyers may come forward”, she said. She also emphasised the “very generous” scheme, under which an individual wishing to purchase the letter and donate it to the State can claim 80 per cent tax relief.
Historian Diarmaid Ferriter welcomed the Minister’s decision. He said the document should never have left the archive held by the Capuchin Order in Church Street, Dublin.
“We need to start talking about the problems of these objects that really do belong to the Republic,” he said.
“That was the last-generated note written by Pearse . . . it should never have ended up in an auction house.”
Stuart Cole, of Adam’s, said he would be taking instructions from his client and would be informing his client of the Minister’s decision.
