Gardaí have confirmed that an investigation is under way into the burglary of tens of thousands of euro worth of jewellery and other bespoke pieces from the Dublin workshop of silversmith Séamus Gill.
A full technical examination was carried out by gardaí at Pearse Street after they responded to a report of a burglary at in Dublin city centre close to the Grand Canal in the early hours of Easter Monday morning.
No arrests have yet been made and enquiries are ongoing.
Mr Gill said he has been overwhelmed by the support he has received since and he hopes that his hallmark signature stamp will help to identify the pieces if they are sold on or found.
He first found out about this incident when he got a phone call at around 6am on Monday and when he arrived, gardaí were already combing through the premises.
He said everything from the making process was taken, including partly made pieces, prototypes and finished pieces.
"Some of the pieces were large tabletop pieces, candlesticks, vases, a number of small tankards and bowls that I was working on. They were unfinished and taken off the work bench."
He said all the jewellery was also taken from his display cases.
"It was total devastation," he said, adding that he has only begun to piece together what was taken now the forensic investigation team has left.
"It's taken 40 years of work. A lot of the pieces are original pieces made from collections going back 40 years," said Mr Gill.
Some of the pieces he works on can take years to complete.
"There's very few silversmiths left in Ireland. The work is very identifiable as silversmithing," he said.
Much of it also contains his maker's punch 'SG'.
He said he has been overwhelmed by the amount of support he has received from people in the jewellery trade and other craft makers, including the emotional support and the good will of the craft community in Ireland.
"Its part of our cultural legacy that's been taken away and hopefully the work is so identifiable and unique that hopefully someone out there will be able to recognise the work."
Mr Gill said this support, including from his suppliers, has made him determined to continue on, despite having lost so much of his work.
"This isn't something I chose, this is something that happened to me and I just have to get back into working and making again."
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Mr Gill is one of Ireland's most distinguished contemporary silversmiths.
In 2018, he presented the late Pope Francis with a bespoke cruet set during his visit to Ireland.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Mr Gill said: "The Pope was a very humble man, and he didn't have many worldly goods, so when he came to Ireland, I was dealing with the Vatican.
"They knew he didn't have his own cruet set, so I made the cruet set that was presented to him when he came here."
His work has been exhibited extensively both in Ireland and abroad, and is featured in permanent collections of the National Museum of Ireland as well as in prestigious private collections around the world.
Mr Gill has appealed to anyone with any information to get in touch with gardaí.
