First of all, we never meant to go back, nor even did we mean to buy a painting.

We never bought for a signature.

It had to be what we thought was a really top quality example of the artist's work.

Howard and Babette Serac bought their first painting in 1964.

This year, the Columbus Museum of Art acquired the Serac collection, consisting of 78 Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and German Expressionist works of art.

The Serax really set out to collect a wonderful, in-depth examination of the 19th century, late 19th and early 20th century not only in France but also in Germany.

And I think that this is important because they are collectors who really study and get into learning about the period and the artists involved.

So I went out and bought an art book.

And that turned out to be really almost the turning point in our lives, because Howard and I looked at it together and we enjoyed it so much, I went out and started going to the library and getting more and more art books.

And before we knew it, we were deeply immersed in the study of art all on our own.

And that's how we got started.

Well, there is a treasure hunt, but there's a lot of luck to having a painting available when you happen to be looking for it, or when someone knows that you're looking for it and they contact you.

There's a lot of luck to it.

This painting by Maria da Silva was a Syracuse first purchase.

Were passing by an art gallery called Nodlers in New York.

Neither one of us had ever been in an art gallery before.

I had heard of Nodler's.

And so I said to Howard, why don't we go in there?

Just see what it's like.

So we wandered in.

And not too many minutes later, we were approached by a very nice gentleman named Martin Jennings, who was later to become a very good friend of ours.

And the next thing he knew, he had hustles upstairs to the fourth floor.

And we were sitting in two very comfortable chairs viewing paintings, one by one, and kind of laughing.

It was like two kids having a lark.

We never intended to buy a painting, actually.

We went ahead and had him send out the Vera da Silva, which was called Atlantica, which was really a contemporary painting.

At the same time, one of the paintings we saw was a painting by Emil Nolde called The Sunflowers.

And we were very attracted to that.

We kept the painting for many weeks and finally said, look, we ought to make a decision.

We did, and we kept it.

Actually, we never intended to send it back.

And that was the really start of the collection because that year we bought about 36 paintings.

There's this wonderful depth, there are five Monets, for instance.

So you can balance this, you can see this whole range of his career.

And there are several Degas and a couple of Thrice Matisse's.

And wonderful Paul Clay's, these 11 Paul Clay works, which is one of the most sizable collection of Paul Clay in the United States.

We admire.

We studied him very hard.

And we were very interested in his various modes.

He's very different in different periods of his painting.

And we had then, that was coupled with the fact that we had the opportunity.

The opportunity was presented to us to acquire some very excellent examples of these various periods.

For me, the artist that, as our old dear friend Sam Saltz used to say, touches me most is Monet.

I mean, I look at Monet's and...

The ones that we have are very different.

They're different as though they were painted by a different artist, maybe.

And there's a strength with Monet that besides the beauty, of course.

Maybe I could tell the story of the last painting we bought.

It's not a funny story, but it's a rather emotional story.

But this was in 1977.

And we went to Sam Saltz's New York home, which was his gallery besides.

And we had many, many lunches there.

And we when to lunch this particular day.

And we immediately sensed a whole new presence in the room.

Was there with Sam before Howard got in the room.

And I looked up, and there was The Great Willow, The Weeping Willow by Monet.

It's the most powerful, beautiful painting.

And I started crying.

When I looked at it, I just looked at and burst out crying.

And then Howard came in, and he looked at, and his head snapped back.

And he said, oh, my god.

And then he started drinking wine.

So after a while, we finally pulled ourselves together and said, we, oh Sam, we've got to have this painting.

Eventually he allowed us, which is where he... That was the way he operated, he allowed us to buy it.

And so when that was hung in the house, we said, that was it.

The collection was really at an end.

It's very important to have these great works of art available, if it's possible, because they give people a sense of spiritual contentment.

And Howard and I have talked about the personal messages that we receive from the paintings living with them over the years.

And our hope is that everybody who comes to the museum and sees the Sierra Act collection will receive their own personal messages, which will help them just get through.

Troubled times.

These are these are troubled times that we live in, but there's something eternally fresh and wonderful and beautiful about these paintings that give you a little bit of hope.