LOSS OF PAINTINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20479, 3 February 1930, Page 12

LOSS OF PAINTINGS.

WRECK OF THE MANUKA. PRESS COMMENTS IN LONDON. The wreck 01* tho steamer Manuka in December was quite a secondary consideration in London to the loss of the paintings by British artists which went down with her. Both in headings and lotterpross it is the loss of the paintings that is emphasised in tho London newspapers, great regret being expressed that so many fine canvases should have been given up to tho sea. Under tho circumstances it might have been expected that tho artist-owners would bo very seriously concerned over their loss, but according to Mr. Murray Fuller, their selling agent at. this end, they have, almost without exception, written and condoled with him over tho mishap and regretting that he would bo so greatly put out after all tho trouble he had taken to introduce these works of art to Australia and Now Zealand. li> was indeed forttinato that tho paintings -were not all on tho one vessel. Although many of tho best went down in tho Manuka thero is still a fine collection of oils and water-colours left and an exhibition of these pictures is to bo opened to tho public' at tho Academy of lino Arts in Wellington on Saturday next. Tho Manchester Guardian states:— "Nearly 30 of tho British artists who waited with such anxiety through a week of winter gales to hear that tho Italian masterpieces had arrived safely in the Thames have learned th'at pictures of thenown have been wrecked 011 the Now Zealand coast during a summer fog. Theirs is a doublo disappointment, because the pictures wore not only going out to bo exhibited throughout tho Dominion j there was ovcry reason to helievo that most, |f not all, of tlicm would bo purchased Tho Daily Chronicle remarked: "The sinking of tho liner' Manuka carryin ir valuable pictures by Sir \\llllam Oipe.ll, Dame Laura Knight, Mr. Brown. Mr. Lamoma Birch and cthei artists, intended for exhibition m NewZealand, gives point to our expression of uneasiness at the timo when tho Leonardo da Vinci with a cargo of priceless Italian paintings, steamed into a gale. Wo expressed doubt, then, as to the wisdom of entrusting so many of the, woild s masterpieces to a single vessel. With this object-lesson before us would it not 1)0 •I, w iso precaution on tho return journey to divido theso irreplaceable treasures anion" several ships? Fortunately, part of Mi" Murrav Fuller's collection was sent direct to New Zealand from London by another vessel."