PAINTINGS hanging in York City Art Gallery could have been created by Jack the Ripper, according to new claims by an American crime novelist.

But curator Richard Green has no intention of taking down the works of Walter Richard Sickert - or of highlighting the alleged dark side of the artist.

Mr Green was sceptical about Patricia Cornwell's theory that the Impressionist artist was leading a double life as the Victorian serial killer.

He said three of the gallery's Sickert paintings were currently on show, but there were no plans either to take them down, or highlight the alleged dark side of their creator.

Ms Cornwell has written a book about her theory after flying a team of American forensic experts to London to examine the notorious Ripper letters for DNA, and buying 30 of the artist's works, ripping one of them up completely in her hunt for clues. She did not find any DNA evidence, but remains convinced of his guilt.

Mr Green said: "My response would be to quote the American writer Gertrude Stein - 'Very interesting, if true'."

He said none of the four York paintings - two of which were stolen in the armed robbery of 1999 before being recovered - were part of the series of paintings which Ms Cornwell said were the key to Sickert's guilt.

These were painted in 1908, 20 years after the Ripper's crimes, and Sickert said they were prompted by the murder of a Camden prostitute.

Mr Green said: "She's latched on to something but without reading the book carefully it would be very difficult to comment further. My own view would be he would have been so busy painting pictures I can't see he had time to commit these murders."

But Mr Green did reveal that another of the gallery's paintings, also stolen in the raid, and now back in the York gallery, was by a killer - Richard Dadd. Born in 1817, Dadd stabbed his father to death in 1843, believing he was possessed by devils and under the power of the Egyptian God, Osiris.

Updated: 11:43 Saturday, December 08, 2001