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DIR. DOMBRE
[[underlined]] GOLF 18 H.[[/underlined]]
VILLA D’ ESTE
CERNOBBIO LAGO DI COMO
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September 3, l954

Dear Germain: 

I am terribly embarrassed when I glance again at your letter of August 1st and realize that we are almost at the time of your departure for America. Such matters as that of the reliefs cannot be furthered by correspondence and I kept the letter at hand as I expected to encounter the owner in Switzerland; but he was unable to come at the last moment. Now I must wait until I see him shortly in Rome.

I agree with you that the price is all out of line for a dealer to consider. I hoped you might be coming South again,when I could have put you in touch with the owner. I will send you information when I am back in Rome,in about ten days; later from Naples regarding [[underline]]that[[/underline]] piece,as the owner has been away in the North all summer.

Surely,living in America so many years has dulled the edge of that fine and subtle sense of humour which used to be so characteristic of you in your purely Gallic days. That you should suggest that people like Pico Cellini and myself should submit any sculpture of the Mediaeval or Renaissance period for the consideration of the sehrgelehrte Herr Dr.Valentiner is, to say the least,whimsical. Evidently you have not read B.B.'s: "Seeing and Knowing",which are two quite different things; it is the confusion of this distinction which has caused so much havoc in the collecting of sculpture in America. I know of nobody who has assembled or "passed" more fakes than the learned Doktor,-as the storerooms of the Met. and the galleries of Detroit can witness, not to mention various private collections. I wonder what became of the two statues of angels which he accepted as by Nicola del Arco, which Mr. Loewi had for sale and which,I am told,were made by the Zoppo gang in Rome. They were to have appeared, according to Mr.Loewi, in Professor Gnudi's book on that sculptor,but were not included when the book appeared. I think they were sold to some rich industrialist in the north of Italy but have not been interested to verify the fact. I told the Herr Doktor Valentiner my opinion of them and was flatly contradicted;per-haps he subsequently changed his mind. We are certainly living in a rising tide of forgeries of all kinds.

^[[Parsons]]

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[[image - logo]] VILLAESTE CERNOBBIO
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