The background to the 10-year (at least) truce: “In 1915 the Irish art collector Sir Hugh Lane was among nearly 1,200 people who died when the Lusitania, an ocean liner, was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the southern coast of Ireland. His will revealed that he had bequeathed his breathtaking collection of impressionist paintings to the National Gallery in London. But evidently he changed his mind. A codicil was found in Lane’s desk at the National Gallery of Ireland, where he was a director, leaving the paintings to Ireland. It was signed but unwitnessed, so London exercised its legal right to have them, sparking a bitter row that has continued ever since.” – The Guardian (UK)
