Issued by Judith Hill

Statement from Judith Hill

10 February 2004

The Hunt Museum commissioned me to write a 2,000 word biographical essay on John and Gertrude Hunt in 1998. The essay I wrote briefly covered the career of the Hunts as dealers and collectors, their involvement in the restoration of Bunratty and the setting up of Craggaunowen, and of John Hunt's activities as an archaeologist and scholar. I submitted the draft to the museum to fulfil the commission. If they had wished to pursue the matter further I would have gone through the pre-publication process of re-reading, checking and adding footnotes, and done any re-writing that we jointly considered necessary. From my research I discovered that the Hunts were highly successful dealers and collectors in a world where there were cases of irregularity. However, the issue of whether the Hunts were directly involved in dealing with illegally acquired objects was one that I did not confront and investigate. Consequently I have no proof that this was the case and in no place in my article did I claim that this was the case.

Judith Hill.
10 February 2004.

ENDS