By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Dr. Tony O’Reilly has revealed he was the mystery buyer of an 1894 painting by French impressionist Claude Monet that was sold at a New York auction for more than $24 million earlier this month.
Buying "Le Portail (Soliel)" — one of a series of works depicting the facade of Rouen Cathedral — was "a labor of love" for O’Reilly that dated back to a childhood cycling trip through France.
O’Reilly, who is thought to be the Ireland’s richest person, said he fell in love with Monet and impressionism on a visit to Rouen as a 14-year-old during the 1950 holiday.
"That was the start of this great affair," he said.
A noted art collector, O’Reilly said he will hang the Monet with the rest of his works at his Castlemartin, Co. Kildare home, but plans to put it on public view "for a couple of months, next year or this year."
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Asked how it felt to write the check for $24.21 million after his successful telephone bid to Sotheby’s in New York on May 11 ,he laughed and said, simply, "painful."
O’Reilly said the day after he bought the masterpiece, the underbidder offered to buy it from him and leave him with a profit.
"I said no, this has been a very long and committed chase to find this particular painting and I would like to keep it," he told RTE.
He explained how in 1950 he traveled on a cattle boat from Drogheda, Co. Louth, to Dieppe in France with a childhood friend and they then set off to cycle to Paris.
They arrived in Rouen and were in the square in front of the cathedral when an elderly Frenchman told them how Monet had painted over 20 different views of it.
"He told us impressionism was about the reality of a building being so but perception of it being quite different."
O’Reilly said they had arrived in the city at midday and his new painting was done at midday.
Known as the "Bean Baron," O’Reilly has major investments in Heinz and Independent Newspapers and in mining, manufacturing and retailing. His second wife, Greek shipping heiress Chryss Gouldandris, is a multi-millionaire in her own right. Their joint fortune has been estimated at almost £1.5 billion.
The painting is regarded as a masterpiece of the impressionist school and had been expected to make $15-20 million. When last sold, in 1985, it had fetched $2.5 million.
Monet, who was fascinated by variations of light and atmosphere brought on by changes of hour and season, installed himself on the second floor of a building across from the cathedral between February 1892 and March 1893.
He began the paintings there, finishing them off in his attic in Giverny, France, and was able to sell the pieces for what were then considered huge sums of money, after a gallery showing in 1895.
Monet is the most respected of the impressionists and one of the most financially comfortable at the time.
He is most famous for his celebrated "Water Lilies" series. The top price paid so far for a Monet was $33 million at a 1998 London auction for one of the "Water Lilies" works.