VISITORS to Osterley Park cannot usually see the stupendous works of art that, until the Second World War, used to hang there. Stored after Lord Jersey had given the property to the National Trust, many of them were destroyed in a fire in September, 1949. Among the casualties were Rubens’s magnificent equestrian portrait of the Stuart favourite, the 1st Duke of Buckingham, and his ceiling showing his apotheosis.
Speaking to The Times, Lord Jersey thought the losses, which also included a van Dyck, might have cost more than £100,000— a fraction of what such masterpieces would be worth today. Gone were some of the most glamorous images of a courtier ever produced; gone, too, was the chance of reuniting them with the house from which they came.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 01, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 01, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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