Details

Name

John Hunt

Brief Biography

1900–76, English

Occupation

Antiques dealer

Description

John Hunt was born in London and studied medicine and architecture before establishing a career as an art dealer, specializing in medieval art. He joined the firm of Acton Surgey as a buyer in 1929, opening his own gallery in 1933 in Bury Street, St James’s. In 1933 he married Gertrude Hartman (1901–95) from Mannheim and together they worked as dealers and advisors for collectors and for Sotheby’s, London.
In around 1939 they moved to Lough Gur in County Limerick, and during the next 20 years John Hunt worked on archaeological excavations there, which were led by Professor Seán O’Riordáin, University College Cork. In the 1950s he advised Lord Gort on the restoration of Bunratty Castle. In 1956 they moved to Drumleck in Howth, Co. Dublin.
The Hunts were keen collectors of antiquities, especially of Irish origin, and of early Christian and late medieval material. In the 1970s they arranged for the collection to be housed in the National Institute of Higher Education, now the University of Limerick, where it became the Hunt Museum. This was moved to the eighteenth-century Customs House in Limerick city in 1997.