His journal entries from 1981 are about the stench of rats infesting the walls and cellars filled with fleas and lice. “Walking through the hall,” he wrote, “By the time I got by the front door, my pants legs looked as someone dumped the pepper pot on me.” It took 66 gallons of white paint and a little over five years for Burke to breathe life back into Seguine Mansion…He also finally had a home for his European masterpieces. Every inch of the house is covered in oil paintings, statues and ceremonial swords. To take a tour is to enter a whirlwind of centuries, dates and schools of art. Burke knows them all; he hand-selected everything. Rubens, Jasper Cropsey, and Rembrandt Peale are some of the names that make any art history buff’s heart skip a beat. There’s also a portrait of Joseph H. Seguine. Read more at Gothamist.com.
Click here to view the George Burke/Seguine Mansion short documentary that I made for Gothamist.
November 13, 2014 / Staten Island, NY
