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[[preprinted]]CASTELLANA HILTON[[/preprinted]]

Thursday p.m.  Mch 6th 1958

Dear Germain:

Your special and express mailed 6.30 on the 3d arrived at noon today, a long time for an airmail letter to span the 12 hour flight from New York.  I will speak again to Mr. Keith at the London-S.A. Bank and remind him of your letter to them of Feby 19th, with the photostatic copies, etc.  The Exchange Control certainly place every obstacle possible in the way of giving you credit, but it's to their advantage.

[[underlined]]Duchess of Fernan Nunez:[[/underlined]]  I went to her Administration Office this morning (after being informed by the major domo by phone that she is absent) and asked the Administrator whether it would not be possible to see the painting.  He telephoned and talked, obviously with the Duchess who gave him permission to bring me there.  He then got out his car from garage and took me the considerable distance to her palatial apartment.  The portrait of the Duke was in place as was the portrait of the Duchess, a ravishing portrait and Goya at his top.  The latter in perfect order but it is my conviction that the black cloak on the Duke is heavily repainted...and without form.  In the adjoining large salon was the most magnificent family group (3 meters wide by 2 m. high I would estimate) the young duke, duchess, two boys on one side and two on the other, and a baby (painted in afterwards by another hand, he told me)  Another superb portrait of Carlos with his gun and dog, (also lent to the exhibition) hung on another wall, and the finest Guardi (quite dirty) I've ever seen on another wall.  In the dining room two magnificent Gothic tapestries, enormous, were hung and another salon had two others even more beautiful.  In fact the place radiated opulence.  We held conversation in French, his almost as imperfect as mine but the sense came through. He said that the Duchess said to regret that she was out and was not able to say Bon Jour to me.

On the return here, I asked him point blank whether it is not true that there is a possibility of her selling the Duke's portrait.  He said, "at this time, absolutely none, but that times have changed, that the great fortune had been divided, that he^[[r]] husband had been killed in the Civil War, that times have changed, etc."  I said,but has she a great fortune now? and he replied"NO, but there is no possibility that she will sell, just the same".  (Incidentally he has a large office and a staff, so I would say there must be something to administer.)  I said, well there is a fortune in the large Goya family group and the others are very fine.  Is she a Spaniard?  He said"NO, she is Argentine, but she has a son (whose portrait I saw also) and a daughter, and she will not sell any pictures or those valuable tapestries."  He will certainly repeat to her that I asked pointedly whether she will sell any one of them, (the Goyas) and I am writing her a note of thanks and giving her my address, etc. in the event that she would part with the Duke.