Russborough House was robbed four times from 1974 to 2002, and Sir Alfred Beit gave his stolen Vermeer to Ireland before it was found

Sir Alfred Beit, 2nd Baronet, inherited a fortune and an art collection from his father, Sir Otto Beit, in 1930. In 1952 he bought Russborough House, County Wicklow, to hold the paintings. In April 1974 Rose Dugdale, an English heiress, and three IRA members forced their way in, pistol-whipped Beit and his wife, tied them up and cut 19 paintings from their frames. The haul, valued at £8 million, included a Vermeer. The gang demanded money and the transfer of IRA prisoners. On 4 May Gardaí found all 19 in a car boot at Glandore, County Cork. Dugdale was jailed for nine years. In 1976 the Beits set up the Alfred Beit Foundation. In May 1986 Martin Cahill's gang took 18 paintings, including Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, and Cahill asked IR£20 million. In 1987 the Beits gave 17 paintings to the National Gallery of Ireland, the missing Vermeer among them. Gardaí recovered it in a sting at Antwerp airport in 1993. Beit died on 12 May 1994. The IRA shot Cahill dead on 18 August 1994. Two paintings stolen in 2001 were recovered the next year. In 2002 Cahill's associate Martin Foley took five; all were recovered. Two Guardi views of Venice from 1986 were still missing in February 2025. In 2015 the Foundation consigned nine paintings, including works by Rubens, Teniers and Guardi, to Christie's; after protests in Ireland the sale was postponed. In 2026 the Foundation runs the house as a museum.