The story behind the newly built Dimitrie Berea Gallery at Berea College is inextricably intertwined with Princess Alice Gurielli Berea Terres and her late husband, Dimitrie Berea, a famous post-impressionist artist whose work is owned by museums, galleries, and royal and private collectors all around the world. Their life stories are as colorful and vibrant as Dimitrie’s paintings on display in the new gallery, which opens on Friday February 21, 2003.

The premier opening exhibit will begin with a dedication ceremony to be held at Noon on Friday in the new gallery. Larry Shinn, the Berea College President and representatives from the College’s Board of Trustees and the Art Department will make remarks. Princess Alice Gurielli Berea Terres and other donors will be recognized. An opening reception will be held from 4:00 – 8:00 that evening, with a brief program scheduled for 5:15. The gallery will also be open for special exhibit hours on Saturday, February 22 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. The Dimitrie Berea Gallery is located on the Berea College campus next to the Rogers Art Building at the corner of Chestnut and Ellipse Streets in Berea, Kentucky.

The almost unbelievable circumstances that led to the creation of the Dimitrie Berea Gallery emphasize the power of the press, the power of a name, and the serendipity of perfect timing! The details seem to be straight out of a movie plot --- complete with danger, romance, and adventure, as well as an interesting cast of characters --- but truth is stranger than fiction. This story begins as all good stories do.

Once upon a time, there was a Russian/Romanian princess named Alice Gurielli, whose grandfather was the king of Georgia. Her life was filled with contrasts of privilege and poverty, hardship and happiness. Her family’s estates were confiscated by the communists and several of her relatives were killed. During Stalin’s regime, she was imprisoned for three years, enduring hardship and near starvation. She escaped and fled to Austria where Nuns at a school in Vienna provided refuge.

Meanwhile, Dimitrie Berea, a Romanian-born post-impressionist painter who refused to work for the Communists, left his homeland for France where he lived and painted for many years. He was an associate and friend of other notable painters including Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, and Dali. He became famous for painting colorful landscapes and portraits of European nobility and heads of state before coming to America in 1960, where he was portrait painter to socialites and film stars in New York, Miami, Palm Beach, San Francisco and Hollywood. It was in New York that the life of Dimitrie Berea became intertwined with that of Princess Alice Gurielli. She had renounced her Romanian citizenship and came to the United States in 1966, first working as a New York City taxi driver and as a housekeeper. She worked for Dimitrie Berea for a few years, cleaning his studio and organizing his papers. He was a poor manager of money and seemed always to be in debt. They fell in love and were married in 1972. She brought to the marriage beauty, charm, cultured sophistication, and good business sense. Their life together was filled with friends who were film stars, government leaders, and European royalty. Three blissful years later, Dimitrie died of colon cancer in Paris. After a memorial mass at La Madeleine, Alice arranged for his burial in Pere LaChaise Cemetery among other famous artists, writers, and nobility.

The works of Dimitrie Berea are part of major museums and state collections in Rome, Madrid, Tel-Aviv, Bucharest, Geneva, London, Paris, Venice, New York, San Francisco, and Vatican City. Private and royal collections include those of Sir Winston Churchill, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Bette Davis, Henry Ford II, Katherine Hepburn, Conrad Hilton, His Majesty King Carl of Denmark, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England and Salvador Dali. The collection of Berea’s own artworks given by his widow, Princess Alice Gureilli Berea Terres, to Berea College now further distinguishes the College as the largest repository of images by Dimitrie Berea.

The connection between Princess Alice and Berea College began about four years ago with a newspaper and a prayer. She was looking for “a sign from God” to direct her regarding the disposition of the post-impressionist artworks by her late husband, Dimitrie. Many notable museums and schools had been soliciting her to place his artwork in their collections. After spending more than an hour in prayer, as is her daily habit, she read about Berea College in an article in the New York Times. Immediately she regarded the common connection between the name of her late husband and the college she had just read about as “a sign,” and contacted Berea College about donating this valuable art collection.

Later, when she saw the College Seal (which contains a cross surrounded by the College motto) on the Berea letterhead, it was to her another “sign” confirming that Berea College was indeed the place where Dimitrie Berea’s works should permanently reside. (She and others who knew him state that as he approached each blank canvas, Dimitrie Berea always made the sign of the cross and bowed deeply before beginning to paint.)

In the intervening years since the princess first read the newspaper article, she came from her home in New York to visit Berea’s campus, she provided funds for the construction of the “Dimitrie Berea Gallery,” and she gave the College many artworks by her late husband.
Construction of the new 4,700 square foot building containing the gallery, began in 2002. The new building connects the existing Rogers Art Building and the Traylor Art Building. The gallery building was designed by Glaserworks, an architectural design firm in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Messer Construction Company, Lexington, KY, serving as general contractor. In addition to the larger gallery space, which will feature Dimitrie Berea’s works art for the premier exhibition, the new building also houses a “Romanian Room” which permanently displays papers and other artifacts, given by Princess Alice, relating to Dimitrie Berea and his native country. In addition to the exhibition space for the Dimitrie Berea art, the new building contains 1,200 square feet of secure art collection storage, an elevator, restroom, and mechanical rooms. With the new construction, old spaces were also renovated to provide a new designated student gallery, a multi-media classroom, a 3-D design space, exhibition prep spaces and a computer graphics studio.

Other donors who made the Dimitrie Berea Gallery building possible include James T.
and Hanna Bartlett of Cleveland, Ohio and Donna and John Hall of Lexington, Kentucky.