ZURBARÁN PATRIARCHS WILL STAY IN AUCKLAND CASTLE

From the The Spectator:

‘It’s the pearl of great price,’ says Jonathan Ruffer. Like the merchant in the Gospel, he is selling all that he hath. With the proceeds, he is buying the 12 Zurbarán paintings of Jacob and his Brothers at Auckland Castle, the palace of the Bishop of Durham. And when he has bought them from the Church of England, he will give them back, keeping them in the castle, thus bestowing them upon the people of the north-east in perpetuity. The price is £15 million. He believes in the Big Society and is taking a big punt on it.
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Last November, he heard that the Church, burdened by the expense of keeping Auckland Castle, wanted to sell the Zurburáns. He was horrified, and ‘shouted at’ the Church about it, but he suddenly realised that ‘I was the only person in a position to do anything about it. I happened to have £15 million [the price stated]. I wanted to do something for the north-east, where I come from. And I collect such paintings. Four years ago, I bought a Gainsborough copy of one of those Zurburáns of a cowled saint. My first thought had been a commercial one – that I could buy them for myself – but then I realised that there was something much more important to do.’

I've never seen the Zurbaráns, but I was excited and well pleased when I read the story at The Lead. My friend Cathy and I went to visit Durham Cathedral, but we did not visit Auckland Castle, because we were in a bit of a rush. When I heard the Church of England had decided to sell the paintings, I wanted to cry. The paintings belong together, and they belong in Auckland Castle, where they've been since 1756. Now the paintings will remain there, thanks to Ruffer, who purchased them sight unseen. Ruffer grew up in the village of Stokesley in North Yorkshire, and his heart is in the Northeast.

‘People underestimate the symbolic power of art,’ he says, ‘Look at the Angel of the North… These paintings are quite monumental.’

You can see photos of the paintings of Jacob and the patriarchs here. The painting of Jacob is pictured above.

But Ruffer is certainly enjoying himself. He sets out the Ruffer theory of money: ‘There are only three things you can do with it – spend it, save it or give it away. For the rich, saving is much more dangerous than spending, because you can see how empty spending is, but it’s harder to see that saving also is. What a lot of money does is poison you. It’s like the digestive system. It’s meant to flow through you, not to stop flowing.’

Now if only all the millionaires and billionaires in the world had Ruffer's attitude toward their money.

H/T to Nicholas Knisely at The Lead.

An article in the Northern Echo gives more information on the history of the Zurbarán patriarch paintings and their purchase by Bishop Richard Trevor of Durham in 1756. Benjamin is missing from Auckland Castle and hangs in Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire.