MONASTERY IN CASES

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 March 1943, Page 6

MONASTERY IN CASES

SOLD BY MR. HEARST

NEW YORK, Dec. 1.

The 12th-century Spanish monastery which Mr. William Randolph Hearst purchased and had shipped to America in a specially chartered steamer in 1923, has been sold to an anonymous byiyer for £4,750. Twice this sum was spent on repacking the monastery after it arrivJed in the United States in 10,500 leases. This had to be done because I the stones had been wrapped in straw jand it was discovered too late that it was illegal—for sanitary reasons —to [import straw. Mr. Hearst is believed ito have spent £ 125,000 on the monhistery. It has been estimated that it iwill cost another £25,000 to transport 'from its present resting place in a iNew York warehouse to wherever it I is to be re-erected. j According to the lawyer who represented its latest purchaser, it will I not be re-assembled until after the 'war and will remain in the New I World. r According to Gimbel’s, the New I York store which made the deal, the sale of the monastery brings to nearly [ £750,000 the total realised on objects front the Hearst collection since January, 1941.