HOUSE OF MYSTERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3437, 31 January 1912, Page 7

HOUSE OF MYSTERY.

SECRET PALACE OF ART IN NEW YORK.

'Hie announcement is made that the unique collection of art treasures and souvenirs, to the value of over £IOO,000, st .-red at the celebrated “house of mystery,” 660, Park Avenue, New York a mansion presented nine years ago to his beautiful and accomplished ward, Miss Emily Grigsby, by the late Mr. C. T. Yerkes, is about to be sold at public auction. Tile auctioneer.-, invited the newsnaper representatives to a private view of the wonderful treasures contained in the Yerkes mansion, and at the same time a statement was issued that Miss Grigsby, wdio is staying in Canada, intends to leave America for ever and take up permanent residence in London. The visitors were led through rooms of dazzling beauty, the ceilings and walls of which were covered with allegorical paintings by eminent artists and gorgeous tapestries and priceless china. In the dining-room was a tankard used by Oliver Cromwell. The bedroom was decorated regardless of cost. It was dominated by a marble group representing “The Temptation of a Vesta! Virgin by Cupid,” standing on an ancient Persian rug interwoven with the love messages of Hafiz. Every one of the thirteen rooms was crowded with jewels, pictures, and rare objects of art. One thing only in the house is not for sale. This is a portraitin a heavy frame of a piquant, quizzical woman with blue eyes and radiant hair, smiling at her possessions. This is 51 kss Grigsby, done in oils by Ivopay, the Hungarian artist. Alias Grigsby is determined, her friends say, to keep nothing to remind her of New York.