The firefighters hauled the masterpieces out of the burning building one by one, often with a fire axe in one hand and a Riopelle in the other.
Sometimes, people walking past the gallery helped out. An elderly woman in a long dress coat stumbled on the slippery street clutching her purse and a painting. Soon workers pitched in from the bakery and boutiques all along Sherbrooke Street.
By the end of a couple hours work, they rescued 250 paintings by some of Canada’s greatest artists. Among them, several pieces each by Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jean Paul Lemieux, Robert Pilot and Paul-Emile Borduas, works completed at the height of the artists’ mastery.
Good Lord, all that important art on the streets, instead of protected museum collections. NAG should buy them all for their protection.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could afford to!
ReplyDelete