Hugh Lane Gallery

This guide to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin opens aboard the Lusitania in 1915, where art dealer Hugh Lane, who had spent years failing to convince Dublin's politicians to fund a proper gallery, made one last change of mind about a collection of paintings by Renoir, Monet and others just weeks before the ship went down. It follows the decades-long dispute between London and Dublin over who could rightfully claim the thirty-nine paintings, and the technicality at the heart of his final will. Along the way it also leads you into the room where Francis Bacon's actual London studio was rebuilt board by board, chaos and all.