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March 24, 1958

Dear John,

As soon as I received your cable on Saturday, March 22, starting "Seventeenth received" I immediately cabled you to the Ritz "CABLED AND AIRMAILED YESTERDAY CARE SEAPOSTS STOP WHICH FRAGO YOU MEAN" in the hope that though it was Saturday, you would be able to obtain your mail at the United States Lines.  I am afraid that this cable, though sent straight, arrived after you had already left for Scotland.

[[underlined]]FRAGO[[/underlined]] Meanwhile, answering my own question to you, I remembered the mention of Fragonard at the Manchester Exhibition "La Fuite a Dessein" of which in fact, I had requested and obtained a photograph.  I have grave doubts about its authenticity, so close it is to one in a New York Collection and also on account of its treatment. There is always a possibility of course that the canvas might have been repainted in parts. . . .  but I am far from being keen on it.

[[underlined]]AMADEO SCULPTURE[[/underlined]]: Miss Morrison has since brought me the photostat and description from the catalogue. It might be better thankit actually looks on the reproduction but as I wrote to you previously it seems as if it had been a bas-relief broken off from its flat background and there is no indication anywhere of a tomb in the Milan cathedral.

[[underlined]]SEMCESEN[[/underlined]]: This morning without my notes from you, but quite self-explanatory, I received the letter you evidently made him write to you accompanying the photographs  We can talk this whole matter over by and by - he himself writes there is no hurry - Without having looked into the reference books etc, the one painting that attracts me much is the Tiepolo but I consider the price an exhorbitant one for comparatively so small a canvas, physically speaking, by this artist.  The Titian is again one of those controversial subjects, which is which, and so on.  The "Master of the Saint Lucia Legend" strikes me as being very fine as regards quality and condition, but the subject is a dreary one and the price again I find completely out of order for a master who is not one of the top men.

[[underlined]]COUNTESS DE ZOGHEB[[underlined]]: Hers to you March 8th and your to her of March 20th - This is really one of the most extraordinary examples of mental telepathy for just a few days ago an article appeared on Pujet with an excellent photograph of the famous statue and I was about to convey my thoughts to you on this matter. Your note makes this unnecessary as you have already covered all the points I would have suggested.

[[underlined]]SCOTLAND[[/underlined]]: By now you have already spent two days in this delightful, misty, damp, and grey part of the country and I will be happy to hear what has transpired, and also of course to receive your answer to my letter of March 21st, when you will have had an opportunity of reading it, re the Strasbourg matter and about the further steps you have taken in connection with the release.

Hoping that the Scotch humidity has not permeated your resistance and pulled you down

With kind thoughts,

Yours,

Germain Seligman    

^[[GS]]

John J. Cunningham, Esq.
c/o United States Lines    
50 Pall Mall
London S.W.1, England

[NOTE on side of page]P.S. You will have noticed that I said above Semcesen's letter with photographs had been duly received without any note from you. This statement however has to be corrected as yours of Saturday afternoon, March 22nd, is now here.