Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), of Irish ancestry, was born in New York City. He graduated from Columbia University as a mining engineer and acquired extensive mining interests in the United States, Africa, and Eastern Europe. He was already an established collector by 1911, when he moved to London, and a trip to the Far East in 1917 inspired an active collecting interest in Chinese and Japanese art. He became a British subject in the 1930s and was knighted in 1954. As his active business career was coming to an end, he moved to Dublin, establishing a Library that he opened to researchers in 1953, and adding an exhibition gallery in 1957. Beatty’s Library became a public charitable trust in 1969, and is one of Ireland’s national cultural institutions. A new purpose-built museum and library housing the Chester Beatty Collections opened at Dublin Castle in 2000. |
