The Unpacked Crates of San Simeon

William Randolph Hearst spent decades amassing one of the largest private art collections in history. From his castle perched above the California coastline, the newspaper magnate dispatched agents across Europe to purchase paintings, tapestries, sculptures, and entire cathedral ceilings. Warehouses in New York and San Francisco bulged with his acquisitions. When Hearst died in 1951, appraisers discovered thousands of crates that had never been opened.…