Harold Riley unveils £1.5m ‘priceless collection’ at The Mere Golf Resort & Spa

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Category: Hotel

Created on Monday, 28 May 2012 13:48

New private dining and event space launched at the resort’s Riley Room

New private dining and event space facilities launched at the resort, The Riley Room, to showcase £1.5m Harold Riley collection. The Mere Golf Resort and Spa has launched its private dining room and event space, The Riley Room, in conjunction with famous Salford artist, Harold Riley. 

The private dining room has been specially named after Mr Riley as a tribute to the long standing family friendship between him and the Boler family and is being celebrated by housing a permanent display of his private collection of sixty unique pieces of art, worth £1.5 million.  The pieces reveal a series of personal letters and sketchings from Mr Riley to his brother, which started just after World War II and chronicle different golf tournaments across the world, capturing many of the great and the good in world golf championships.

“To me, these pieces are priceless and it was important for me to keep this collection of works together in one place. My family and I have a long history with The Mere and I am delighted to be able to display them in this special room and mark the launch of The Mere’s new private dining and event space. It also means a great deal to me to keep them close by in the North West,” commented Mr Riley.

Mr Riley was born in Salford in 1934 and started his career at the age of 17 when he won a scholarship to the Slade College of Fine Art in London and went on to study in Florence and Spain before returning to Salford, where he has lived ever since. As a student he became a good friend of fellow Salfordian L. S. Lowry and together they worked on a project to record the area and its people, a project which Riley continued until the end of the twentieth century. Riley developed his reputation as a portraitist of many rich and famous people including popes, presidents and royalty most notably Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II.

His sporting works include portraits of George Best and Lord Sebastian Coe, but golf in particular has always been a passion of the artist. He has painted many of the greatest golfers in some of the best contests around the world including Jack Nicklaus, perhaps the best golfer of all time. Harold Riley has become known internationally as probably the most famous painter of golf.

“It is an honor for us to have this prestigious collection on display here at The Mere.  Our friendship with Harold goes back a long while through a shared love of golf and it is very fitting that these pictures have found a home here in the Riley Room,” commented Mark Boler, owner and CEO of The Mere Golf Resort and Spa. “I am very proud tonight to see the many years of hard work in redeveloping the resort culminate in showcasing our private dining and event space alongside Harold’s art collection.”

The Riley room is a self-contained space which lends itself to private dinners and intimate events and can accommodate small groups through to a party of 60 people.