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[[handwritten]] re. Goya- [[/handwritten]]

112 East 54th Street
New York 22, New York

May 28, 1951

Dear Mr. Semcesen:

Upon my arrival in New York, Mr. Germain Seligman turned over to me your letter of May 10th which he had just received and which he asked me to answer as he, in turn, had to depart from Hew York on an extensive trip.

Those lines are written in both our names.

I was much perturbed to read of the experiences you have met with and trust that as you state, matters will straighten out, thanks to the help the Norwegian Government is willing to give you.

This evidently explains the reason why Mr. Seligman's letter to you from Paris in answer to the letter you had written to him from the Military Hospital in Paris, never reached you.

You have probably heard meanwhile from Zurich that we both had gone to look at the painting. That this painting is of interest to us is obvious, but as we both explained to you and particularly Mr. Seligman, from the conversation I had with him on the subject, we have to be assured of certain fundamentals before proceeding any further-namely (and this is the most important point) that this painting was exported legally, in other words with the full assent of its country of origin. You will certainly understand this.

Such an important work of art can only be proposed to one of two or three museums in this country and such an acquisition would immediately be greatly publicized. In what position would that museum or public institution be, or would Mr. Seligman be if they were then met with claims from the country of origin.

You have certainly heard of the case of the Italian primitive purchased a couple of years ago by the Metropolitan Museum, which had been exported in an irregular way from Italy. It led to all kinds of official and diplomatic remonstrances and complications of a very disagreeable nature.

We of course do not suspect that this is the case with the picture you so kindly proposed to us, but in view of past experiences and examples, you will certainly understand our desire to be fully protected and I am therefore asking you to be so good as to submit proof by documents of the official sanction given for exportation purposes by said country...export license, etc. You could easily have photostats (not photographs) of such documents and send them either to me or to Mr. Seligman.

The other point we stressed was the identity of the person into whose hands payment should be made, in case of purchase. It has occurred to us that in view of the fact that youmentioned that you have a partner who was duly established in and a resident of Switzerland, you might consider having payment made to him.