AN unexpected email last autumn has led to a very colourful, and welcome, gift at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. Now, thanks to the generosity of Californians Anthony Delfino and Patricia Silver, five, large-scale and dramatic paintings, tracing the history of Pan Am planes from flying boat to jet plane, hang in the Foynes Museum.

Unusually, though, the donors have never visited Ireland or the museum. "They found us on the internet. They were looking for a good home for the paintings and after looking through our site, they wrote and said, we think you are where these paintings should go," museum director Margaret O'Shaughnessy explained.

"We have never met them. Nobody from the museum has ever met them and they have never visited."

Probably more unusual still, Margaret continued, neither Anthony Delfino nor Patricia Silver ever had any formal connection with Pan Am.

But as Mr Delfino explained to her: "For some reason we fell in live with the airline many years ago and attempted to use its services whenever we could. To us, the airline had a mystique."

Mr Delfino's fascination with the airline extended to its history, the routes, pilots and personnel - and this fascination flowered ten years ago when he commissioned artist Gary Miltimore to do the historical series of paintings. "I was organising an office for my consulting practice and after a lot of time with decorators, consultants etc. decided that since we were close to Los Angeles International Airport it would be appropriate to have interior decorations that reflected air travel."

Last year, Mr Delfino and Ms Silver began to search for a new home for the paintings - which require a lot of wall space - when they proved to be too big even for their new, larger home.

"Gary and both of us are delighted that these works have found a home where the right people will see them," Mr Delfino told Margaret O'Shaughnessy.

The artist, Gary Miltimore, is best known in his native Orange County, California for his yacht paintings.

The first of the five paintings depicts the first Boeing 314 against a San Francisco background - the same type of flying boat that began operations in Foynes in 1939.

"We have had a lot of donations this year," Margaret O'Shaughnessy said as the paintings were being hung.

"The Americans are absolutely outstanding in their generosity to museums in general. There is a culture there of supporting museums and galleries."

Another important acquisition this year was the load adjustor from the Bermuda Sky Queen which crashed into the North Atlantic on its way from Foynes to New York. In a daring sea-rescue, during which all 61 passengers on board were brought to safety, the captain Chuck Martin managed to rescue two items - a compass and the load adjustor.

In July, the Foynes Flying Boat Museum will celebrate 20 years in business as well as the 70th anniversary of the first flying boat crossing.