Fireside Friday: What’s Missing at Hearst Castle?

Fireside Friday: Baron Joseph Duveen, the world’s premiere art dealer, called William Randolph Hearst “the Great Accumulator.” He bought not only “art, antiques, statuary, silverware and textiles on an epic scale,” he also acquired “over thirty ceilings, doorcases, fireplaces and mantels, entire monasteries,” etc. to furnish the famous castle he built between 1919 and 1947 at San Simeon on the California coast. Lavish in the extreme, it still is missing one important item.