NEVER BEEN TO CHINA

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 121, 15 February 1935, Page 11

NEVER BEEN TO CHINA

Owner of Finest Chinese

Art Collection Dominion Special Service —By Air Mail. London, January 22, A broken-hearted old man stood in a deserted room of a Chelsea mansion, his head bowed, watching carters at work. They were taking away priceless sculptures, bronzes and ornaments of jade—t,he finest collection of Chinese art in the world—which the old man had just “given” to the British Museum for £lOO,OOO, a fraction ot its real worth. Mr. George Euinorfopoulos was the old man. lie is British-born, of Greek parentage, and he has devoted most of his 71 years of life and most of his fortune to the pursuit of beauty in art. You cannot buy a catalogue of his collection for less than £l5O. As the carters finished their task, Mr. Euinorfopoulos said: “My treasures were too expensive to keep. My house is too large for the times. My treasures occupied five rooms in it. Expenses became too great. I may have to give up my home. When lam lonely I shall •go to the British Museum to visit my ‘old friends.’ ” Then he told a strange thing. He—the most famous collector of Chinese art —has never been to China! But now that ho has parted with his collection lie is going almost immediately to see the ravaged cave temples of China which have provided him with so many of his treasures in the past.