Viewing page 17 of 133

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

^[[FILE]]

[[preprinted letterhead]] John J. Cunningham
112 East Fifty-Fourth Street
New York 22, New York [[/preprinted letterhead]]

August 18th., 1956

Dear Germain:

Here it is Saturday night, and as I've been enjoying a terrific cold (due to sitting in an air conditioned office at 60 degrees, for a couple of hours and then exiting into 90 degrees plus humidity) I am staying in town to get over the effects...and still at 89 degs.  Its tough and if this letter seems incoherent attribute it to all these contributing causes.  I'm glad to add that there is thunder in the air and maybe there will be rain to cool us off.  This of course, doesn't match up with your typhoon weather but its the best we can do for the present.

A letter from Rottier arrived yesterday, and miracle mirabile, he seems to have been able to communicate with H.S.H.    Here it is:

[[indented copy of letter]] August 13., 1956

"Dear Mr. C. 

Further to my letter of July 31st I beg to inform you that H. S. H. the Duke of Arenberg agrees to sell the engravings at the minimum price of $20,000. ----however under the express condition, that the engravings must be sold as an [[underlined]]in[[/underlined]]tity, as His Highness does not wish in any case, that some items remain unsold.

As you trust to obtain for certain engravings higher prices than estimated, I expect that the minimum price of $20,000.---will be exceeded considerably. The terminal date of our agreement will be April 30th., 1957.

With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

Rottier [[/indented copy of letter]]

This strikes me as not a bad arrangement, for we [[underlined]] may [[/underlined]] possibly be able to sell five or six of the best for pretty close to that minimum and by an ^[["]]awkward coincidence^[["]] (?) have to keep the others ourselves in order to satisfy his demand that he have NONE of them left.  This is just conjecture on my part, but we can make a try and see how we come out.  I am of the opinion that we should sell the lot, however, to none other that Mr. Charles B. Wrightsman, who can give them to a Museum and get a tax deduction which will make him a benefactor at a very small cost to himself.  After all, he must like the idea of owning a great Arenberg painting....why not own the great Durers too?  And what is 30,000 dollars to him?

A letter from Peggy Singer: Its content does not surprise me:

[[indented copy of letter]] Dear John: Your letter of the 24th was forwarded to me here (Aix en Provence) and it was nice to hear from you.  I am still not feeling full of energy and was certainly far too seedy to do anything

^[[P.T.O.]]