Michel Jacques Monet

Michel Monet was the son of Impressionist artist Claude Monet. When his father died, he inherited his father's collection and kept most it in a country house at Sorel-Moussel in Normandy for 40 years, including paintings by his masters, Delacroix and Boudin, and by his fellow Impressionists —including a portrait of Claude Monet at age 32 by his friend Auguste Renoir. Rather than display his father's collection, he kept them under beds or piled high gathering dust until he needed money for his African safaries, which were his main interest in life.

Monet died in a car accident when his car collided with a truck in 1966 as he was driving back from visiting his wife's grave in Normandy. Per his father's wishes, he left his father's collection to the Marmottan, not to the French government because his father never forgave the Louvre for ignoring him.