A MILLIONAIRE'S PALACE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 19 October 1907, Page 3

A MILLIONAIRE'S PALACE.

About a dozen foreign delegates who arc attending the international School Congress at South Kensington had a novel experience recently. They were permitted to view the pictures and art treasures contained in the l'rince's Gate mansion of Mr J. Pierpout Morgan. One of the delegates, interviewed after his visit by a representative of the Daily Hail, remarked: "It was the most extraordinary experience of my life. When we arrived we were keenly scrutinized by several clean-shaven men who were evidently detective.-. We signed our names in a book in the hall, and then traversed a series of beautiful rooms, in which articles of fabulous worth were strewed about broadcast. One little ease of ancient church ornaments, which was placed in my hands for au instant, was .said to be worth £30,000. "1 saw, in the course of a brief halfhour, in this one house, marvels of art from every corner of the world, which must have represented a total value of close upon a million pounds. A tiny miniature lying in an open ease, with the jewels of its frame sparkling in the sunlight, would have realised not less than £IO,OOO.

"No wonder the credentials of visitors are so keenly inspected before they cross the threshold of this treasure palace. Pictures by the most famous painters of all times cover the walls, each being illuminated by an ingeniius and artistic arrangement of concealed electric lights, which serve admirably to throw into relief just those aspects of it which are most notable.

"The owner of this vast wealth of art treasures was absent; but I learned that he had been obliged to knock two houses into one to accommodate his ever-in-creasing collection, and that he has built many new rooms especially to contain and show to the best advantage the most costly of his possessions. " I heard incidentally that he has thirty artists engaged upon the production of hand-painted volumes dealing with the miniatures of his marvellous collection. Each of these books will cost £SOO, and they are, it is stated, to lie presented to the crowned heads of Europe."