Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> During the second half of the twentieth century Ireland benefited from the donation of three major art collections. There was Sir Alfred Chester Beatty’s extraordinary array of items from the Middle East Asia North Africa and Europe; the great paintings acquired by Sir Alfred Beit and John and Gertrude Hunt’s eclectic mix a collection based on a knowledge of art that was legendary. Over the years with the benefit of an extraordinarily good eye the Hunts put together an enchantingly diverse and extraordinary collection of art. This was all the more remarkable in that while Beatty and Beit were both wealthy. the Hunts were people of modest means who none the less accumu- lated an art collection of high international esteem and range from Neolithic Europe to the contemporary world. The Hunts believed visual education to be of the utmost importance if people were to enjoy art and be educated by it. They were determined therefore that their collection should be exhibited in its entirety to the public and with that in mind they searched for a suitable location for its display. In the early 1970s Dr Edward Walsh offered them exhibi- tion space at the University of Limerick where part of the collection was displayed in 1978. When the eighteenth-century Limerick Custom House subsequently became available for alternative use the prospect of a permanent home for the collection appeared feasible. (LL)