McGregor painting stolen

O’Loughlin, an Irish painter, says a large print of McGregor was taken from the Balla Bán Art Gallery in the Westbury Mall near Grafton Street on Sunday, and that Christmas shoppers possibly witnessed the theft.

I just got a call from the gallery yesterday to say, [the person worked there] turned his back to chat to someone and when he looked back it was gone. It is not a small painting, so surely somebody saw the person with it. It is a hard thing to carry around without being noticed. Of course I am annoyed, but I am relieved it was not the original. It took three and a half months to paint with the tattoo taking a good proportion of that. We don’t do many prints, so it is frustrating. I don’t hold out much hope of getting it back unfortunately. The print would have been around €300. [For the original] I’ve been offered €7,000 for it but turned it down. I would like to hang on to it, unless of course Conor himself came looking for it.

Would love to catch the f**k@r who stole my Conor McGregor from the @BallaBanArt gallery in the Westbury mall.If u saw anything let me know pic.twitter.com/2g0wT9fgmT

— Niall O'Loughlin Artist (@nialloloughlin) December 19, 2016