![]() ![]() Onians had bought it at a country house sale in the 1940s for a mere £12. The photograph in the catalogue, no larger than a postage stamp, showed a rabble of rampaging people setting fire to a large building and making off with loot. Before any major sale of artworks Sotheby's puts out a catalogue so that interested buyers can see in advance what will be on offer.Ī great art expert, Sir Denis Mahon (1910-2011), was looking through the catalogue one day when his eye was caught by one painting in particular. When he died, his children put the paintings on sale by Sotheby's, the London auction house. Afraid of being burgled, he rigged up his own home-made alarm system, using klaxons powered by old car batteries, and always slept with a loaded shotgun under his bed. So he simply piled them up, keeping some in his chicken sheds. There were too many to hang them all on the walls of his relatively modest home, Baylham Mill in Suffolk. Eventually he collected more than five hundred canvases. He used to go around local auctions and whenever a painting came on sale, especially if it was old, he would make a bid for it. Known as an eccentric, his hobby was collecting paintings. A true story that took place in 1995: It concerns the legacy of an unusual man with an unusual name: Mr Ernest Onians, a farmer in East Anglia whose main business was as a supplier of pigswill. ![]()
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