$15,000,000 Worth

When the silverware from William Randolph Hearst's castle of St. Donat's in Wales was sold at a loss in London last November (TIME, Nov. 29), many an observer wondered how soon Mr. Hearst would begin to sell the rest of his hoard. The total Hearst collection of art and art objects has never been catalogued except in its owner's capacious memory, but its monstrous character has been a popular legend for years. Last autumn the New Yorker tried to investigate one of the five Hearst warehouses, a square block building in The Bronx, and reported rumors that besides a dim array of armor and some mummies it contained two palaces and a church, in pieces.

Last week the news broke on U. S. front pages that Mr. Hearst, now nearly 75 and busily engaged in putting his affairs in order, had decided to sell or otherwise dispose of at least two-thirds of all his art. Estimated value of the lot: $15,000,000. If Mr. Hearst succeeds in his disposals his estate will have to pay inheritance taxes on only $5,000,000 worth of art objects. Just when the auctioneer's hammer will begin to fall was not stated, because after three months of work Mr. Hearst's agent, Manhattan Dealer Macdermid Parish-Watson, is nowhere near the end of cataloguing the collection. Hearst papers especially hinted at museum bequests by announcing that their boss meant to "share" his art with the nation.

One of the few great private collections surviving in America,* Mr. Hearst's hoard of treasure is probably the most heterogeneous ever amassed by one man. Collector Hearst began in 1891 with English Staffordshire furniture and continued for 47 years to gorge a Gargantuan appetite for possessions. Housed at San Simeon, at Sands Point, L. I., in Manhattan, at St. Donat's and in the Hearst warehouses, his hodgepodge includes thousands of pieces of furniture, tapestries, armor, and hundreds of paintings including a few estimable Bouchers, Van Dycks, Rembrandts. Corrected by precise Agent Parish-Watson last week was the New Yorker's, tale of the palaces stored in The Bronx warehouse. What is actually there is a 12th-Century Spanish monastery, in 10,000 boxes.

* Collections recently given to the public include those of Andrew William Mellon and Jules Semon Bache.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.