Private Art Masterpieces

It's known as one of the world's best private art collections - and a multi-millionaire wants to share it. Jack Warner, 87, often can be found wearing tennis shoes, sitting in a red leather chair in the midst of his collection of masterpieces at the Warner-Westervelt Museum on the rocky cliffs overlooking Lake Tuscaloosa. There are patriot portraits, frontier landscapes, Old West and Civil War battle scenes, and Impressionist idylls, painted by the greatest American artists: James Peale, Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, James Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassat, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keefe and Andrew Wyeth. "It is the finest privately held collection of American art in the world - I can say that without reservation," said Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. "What I love about it, too, is it gives this wonderful view of American history. Jack Warner has a great eye. People are never prepared for the quality." For the full story - click the title Irish Art