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Jim's approach to money and fundraising for Kettle's Yard


Denis Murphy

Transcript
We went to the Marlborough Gallery, Jim saw these huge, row after row, of Ben Nicholsons, grey and white, and he was scandalised, you know, 'ten thousand pounds, what nonsense, I can't possibly afford ten thousand pounds'. He didn't buy one that day, although he could have done. We went to buy a piano that day and he didn't like the colour of it, the piano was... he had this idea of music in the gallery, an idea which he backed up. He produced money every day of the week. I'd sit at my desk and I'd get letters from Jim, three or four a day, with money in them, cheques from various people... so before we knew what had happened, he had got money for the exhibition gallery. He conjured it out of the air. He also sold things I suspect - quite a lot of that. Little old ladies buying works of art which weren't numbered or dated or anything. He sold things at auction. He was a wheeler-dealer, anything to achieve his objective and I find that admirable actually.