In welcoming this Bill on the last day we discussed it, I felt that it was opportune to examine something of the life and the collecting habits of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty because the Library is a monument to the life of this man. The Library and the man are inextricably linked. I had got to the twenties when I was discussing it the last time. Around that time the art collection of Chester Beatty expanded at a phenomenal rate. Selection Trust likewise surged forward to become a group of companies with mining interests in many countries including Russia, Serbia, Cold Coast and Sierra Leone. The greatest revenue was generated in Africa and specifically in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, where Rhodesian Selection Trust controlled the huge copper belt.
Beatty helped to pioneer new methods of extracting copper from low grade ore. His business acumen was based on flair, courage, expertise and an ability to delegate responsibility. He dared to explore and exploit the copper reserves of Africa when many fortunes had been lost in previous ventures and the geography and climate were generally considered impossible for successful mining. However, using the new mining techniques and concentrating on housing and health care for his staff, Beatty was amply rewarded for his enterprise, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Great Britain. His profession acknowledged his achievement with many honours, including the gold medal of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1935. Interestingly enough, Beatty was very modest about his success, but he was justifiably enthusiastic and proud of his art collections,. He was adamant and stated over and over that he was not a scholar but 50 years of careful study and the vetting of high quality art material allowed him to become very knowledgeable. Like many other collectors he was proud of his eye for quality and wrote:
It is no good keeping things that are not first class, they simply keep the collection down.
That indicates that he was only interested in the very best. It is that very best which is on display to all of us in the Chester Beatty Library. It is very nice to hear that kind of standard quite unashamedly gone after and indeed stated.
This kind of attitude is reflected in the Chester Beatty Library and is its hallmark today. Its founder understood quality to mean, first and foremost, good condition and then other factors were considered; rarity, value, age, aesthetic or artistic merit. Each item had to be in excellent condition and often he would reject material on the grounds that it was unhealthy or grubby. He had his own system of notetaking while visiting a dealer's shop. For example, if he did not wish to buy an item, he would write DCFI meaning "Don't care for it" or NFFC meaning "Not fit for collection". He categorised everything he bought as A, B or C. He rarely bought ‘C' material and if he did he would sell it again immediately. Only exceptionally would he allow ‘B' material to remain in the collection. The ‘A's were graded as ‘A+', ‘A' and ‘A-'. Beatty was a most discriminating buyer and rarely bought at random or in bulk. He spoke none of the many oriental languages which are represented in his collection and this encouraged the purchase of illustrated material, fine bindings, and an administration for beautiful calligraphy. It has been said that the Chester Beatty Library is a trinity; a library, a museum and a gallery, all in one.
During the Second World War, 1939 to 1945, Beatty's mining expertise was of great benefit to the Allied war effort. He served as vice-chairman of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation Limited established by the British Government to further war-time trade. He was also a member of two government committees established by the Ministry of Supply, the Non Ferrous Metals Controls Board and the Diamond Dies Control Board. He had become a naturalised British citizen in 1933 and retained a British passport until his death in 1968. He first attracted public attention as a patron of the arts in Great Britain when in 1931 he gave material on loan to the International Exhibition of Persian Art held at Burlington House, London, and especially in November of that year when it was announced in The Times that he had acquired some biblical papyri which in the words of Sir Frederic Kenyon, retired director of the British Museum constituted, and I quote:
...the most remarkable addition to the textual material of the Greek Bible which has been made for many a long day...
Beatty's charitable activities were numerous and he showed special concern for the cause of cancer research, founding and financing the Chester Beatty Research Institute of the Royal Cancer Hospital, London.
Interestingly enough, when researching material for this debate — and, indeed, I am grateful to the Chester Beatty Library personnel who were extremely helpful in that regard — I got a photocopy of an extract from The Sunday Express of 6 November, 1949. This newspaper article notified Beatty's friends in Great Britain of his intention to leave that country and to move to the Republic of Ireland which, of course, caused something of a stir, as one can imagine because the British would have preferred it if he had bequeathed his treasures to them. This move was one which gave rise to great surprise and excitement in the art world. The newspaper extract is headed “ 'Copper King' ships out £1 million Treasures”. It says:
Art treasures and manuscripts said to be worth more than £1,000,000——
——and this was in 1949——
——are being shipped to Éire from the London home of 74 year old Mr. Chester Beatty, the copper millionaire.
They are being sent from Beroda House, in Kensington Palace Gardens to his new home, a 12-room £12,000 house in Ailesbury Road, Dublin.
Mr. Beatty is believed to be in France.
Friends and business associates in London cannot explain the move of this American-born magnate, who, when he became a naturalised Briton in 1933, said: "I love England, and have taken root here".
He retired at the age of 35. But at 40 he made another fortune.
Most of his collection, including ancient manuscripts, Islamic pictures, and Indian and Persian miniatures, has been going over to Dublin during the past month.
Mr. Beatty's mining activities in Rhodesia are said to have added £500 million of potential wealth to the Empire, and saved Britain 50,000,000 dollars a year.
He has criticised Government policies of bulk buying and high taxation recently.
At a meeting of the stockholders of his Selection Trust he said that London was no longer the mining centre of the world. The position would deteriorate, he said, while high taxation, unjust duties, and rigid controls stopped new mining projects being launched.
Mr. Beatty has earned distinction as a collector of ancient manuscripts. His collection includes Egyptian papyri 100 years older than the Codex, which have thrown new light on the Bible.
So one can see that it certainly caused a stir at the time of his removal of his objects to Dublin.
In 1945, of course, there was a general election in Great Britain and it clearly demonstrated the changes which the war had wrought because Churchill's Government was rejected in favour of the first majority Labour Party Government in British history. Beatty considered Churchill to be a versatile man. He described him as "the greatest of our time, with the courage of a lion". He also said that, but for Churchill, Britain would have been crushed. But, of course, for someone of Beatty's wealth and background the new Labour Government was, in contrast, utterly distasteful and Beatty claimed that the Labour Party had institutionalised bureaucracy and he criticised regimentation and rules and high taxes and red tape.
During the war he had been unable to take his annual vacation in Egypt and in 1946 he was distressed to find difficulty in acquiring currency to go abroad. He found that a philosophy alien to him was taking over the country he had come to consider as his own. This became particularly apparent when he began to have difficult relations with the British Museum. He considered the British Museum to be the greatest museum in the world and always aimed to rival her collection of each class of material which interested him. Beatty decided in 1950 at the age of 75 the time had come to retire as chairman of Selection Trust, a position which he handed over to his son, Alfred Chester, junior. That certainly gives some idea of the thinking of the man and the reasons why he should decide to relocate. Without commenting on his ideas of a Labour Government in Britain, I must say that we all here have cause indeed to be extremely grateful that that was his thinking at the time.
Beatty had visited Dublin in 1930 and he enjoyed the antique shops and the atmosphere of the city — and, of course, one is tempted in an aside to recognise the fact that, while the antique shops are still in Dublin and indeed flourishing, the atmosphere of the city has changed a great deal from what it was in the time of Chester Beatty. He was extremely pleased when his son bought a country estate in 1948 called Mount Armstrong at Donadea, County Kildare. Indeed, Sir Alfred visited him there on a number of occasions. So he decided that he would settle in Ireland and in May 1950 he moved to Dublin where he had bought this house that I spoke of in Ailesbury Road. He wished for peaceful surroundings and he declared that "Ireland is the best country in which to retire. The country has atmosphere. The people have so much charm — life goes on as it did elsewhere until 1939". He proposed at that stage to establish a permanent library to house his collections. He made preparations for the transportation to Dublin of 35 tons of art works.
At first he thought of buying a building in the centre of Dublin, but he was discouraged by the danger of fire in Georgian terraced buildings. So he then took a decision to build a library and he purchased a site at 20 Shrewsbury Road which was very near his residence in Ailesbury Road. On 8 August 1953 the Chester Beatty Library was opened at a private garden party in the grounds. The following year the Library was opened to the public each Wednesday and Beatty often came himself to meet the visitors. He was simply delighted with the Library and he spoke fondly of what he called the "little island site, beautifully protected and away from all noise and dirt". An extension was opened on 24 August 1957 at a ceremony attended by many distinguished guests including the President of the Republic of Ireland, Mr. Seán T. O'Kelly and the then Taoiseach, Mr. Éamon de Valera.
Beatty spent only about four months of each year in Dublin, from May to September, spending the rest of his time in the south of France at Nice and later in Monaco. Despite retirement, the 1950s were a busy period for the Library as Beatty bought Japanese woodblock prints, Batak bark books from Sumatra, books about Jesuit missions to the Orient, and added to his other collections. He gradually formulated the method by which he hoped to guarantee the future of the Library after his death. He was very friendly with President O'Kelly and they often met at Saturday afternoon picnics in County Wicklow where they each owned a house. He was also by now well acquainted with many leading Irish politicians and they appreciated his wish to bequeath his collections to the Irish nation.
In Dublin Chester Beatty was a remarkable world figure who had known people like Winston Churchill, Herbert Hoover and General Eisenhower. His conversation, as one can imagine, was fascinating, ranging from Wild West mining camps and Pinkerton detectives to how he acquired the biblical papyri and a magnificent Korans. The Irish media wrote of Beatty in feature articles with headlines like "Portrait of a Gentleman" and "Copper King with a Heart of Gold". The words most often used to describe Beatty was "simple", "uncomplicated", "cultivated", "generous", "friendly" and "good humoured". It is, therefore, hardly surprising that he was so well liked and so respected and indeed, that we should be talking about him here in 1985 in one of the Houses of the Oireachtas.
During the 1950s Beatty presented many gifts to the Irish nation, including paintings to the National Gallery of Ireland and oriental weapons and armour to the military museum at the Curragh Camp in County Kildare. He granted material from his collections on loan to exhibitions and supported many charitable organisations, particularly favouring the Wireless for the Blind Fund. Indeed, that appeal is still going strong — one hears Patricia McLoughlin's voice every so often making that appeal. Distinguished scholars came to study at the Chester Beatty Library and fine published catalogues helped to establish its importance.
Ireland was not slow to acknowledge Beatty's great generosity and many other countries also honoured him during his long life. He received four honorary doctorates from Columbia University, New York, in 1935; the University of Birmingham in 1939; Trinity College, Dublin, in 1951 and the National University of Ireland in 1951; the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Sava in 1930 for work in developing Yugoslavia's mining resources; the Order of King Leopold II in 1932 for services in developing the Belgian Congo; a British Knighthood in 1954; Freeman of the City of Dublin in 1956 and first honorary Irish citizen in 1957.
Chester Beatty died at the Princess Grace Clinic, Monte Carlo, on 19 January 1968, three weeks before his 93rd birthday and exactly 11 years after he was awarded honorary Irish citizenship. He was given a State funeral to Glasnevin Cemetery and, indeed, his monument there, in contrast to the exotic collection he presented to the nation, is a very simple granite stone and very touching in its simplicity. There was a service following his death in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and dignatories of Church and State attended, which evidenced his significance in the life of the State.
He left his library buildings and their wonderful contents to a board of trustees to be administered by them on behalf of the Irish people. Under the conditions of Beatty's will the Irish Government took over the administrative and maintenance costs of the Library, and the building constructed in 1956 was extended to house a modern gallery which was officially opened on 26 July 1975 by Mr. Cearbhaill Ó Dalaigh, then President of Ireland. I think Chester Beatty's greatest legacy is, of course, that of his Library. It was an extraordinary gift which has provided the Irish people and, indeed, foreign visitors to our shores, with an opportunity to become acquainted with Eastern cultures, languages, religions, customs and traditions. He opened the world to us at a time when it was closed and he allowed us to have a glimpse into the Orient which really was denied to most of us and, indeed, I suppose still is, but in those days it was particularly extraordinary and very much appreciated by people. In that way you could say he definitely made a very marked contribution to the broadening of attitudes and to the expansion of horizons which, as an island nation on the periphery of Europe, we so badly needed and, I am tempted to say, we still need.
The memory of Sir Chester Beatty and the success of his legacy will hopefully live and grow for a very long time to come and it is for all those reasons that I have pleasure in welcoming this Bill.