Focus on A Boyar Wedding Feast and explain the Provenance.
Winning the 1885 medal of honor at the Exposition Universelle d'Anvers (2 May – 2 November 1885),  A Boyar Wedding Feast was purchased by American jeweler and art collector Charles William Schumann in August 1885 for $15,000 (or £10,000). Schumann reportedly outbid Alexander III of Russia to obtain the work. The painting was auctioned as part of Schumann's estate on 23 January 1936 and sold for $2,500. Sometime after the sale, A Boyar Wedding Feast entered the collection of Robert Ripley, creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not!. It was sold during his estate sale on 26 August 1949 for $2,200. The painting was again offered for sale on 18 December 1968. Between 1968 and 1973, the painting was acquired by Marjorie Merriweather Post. Upon her death in 1973, the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens was founded by Post's estate, and A Boyar Wedding Feast was donated to the collection.
Exposition Universelle d'Anvers Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens Robert Ripley Marjorie Merriweather Post Alexander III of Russia Ripley's Believe It or Not! Boyar £