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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 512 
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MADE BY BAKER-VAWTER CO.
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David Cox, Lorenzo Lotto, Sebastiano Mainardi, J. M. W. Turner, George Romney, Sir Henry Raeburn, Govaert Flinck, N. Maes, Giacomo Francia, and William Hogarth, estimated to be worth at least $500,000; and

WHEREAS, the gift of the late Charles Lang Freer includes a building, erected at a cost of $1,250,000, to house and exhibit collections of Chinese and Japanese art, and paintings and sculpture by American artists, all having a value in excess of $5,000,000; and also comprises a fund of $1,500,000, the income of which is to be used to increase the art collections of the Government; and

WHEREAS, these collections, excepting the Freer collection, having been introduced into the Natural History building, displacing the legitimate exhibits which, as a result, are consigned to storage or are seriously crowded much to the detriment of the exhibits themselves, and to their use for the purposes of education and science; and

WHEREAS, several collections of large value would have been given to the Government, had there been a place to display the articles comprised therein, and are now lost to the Nation; and moreover

WHEREAS, the national historical collections in the custody of the National Museum, consisting of antiquarian, biographical, costume, military, naval, numismatic and pictorial material, relating to the earlier periods of American history and more particularly of military, naval, and various other types of material relating to the part played in the World War by the United States and the Allies, all uniting to form an aggregation of museum material of priceless historical value for educational and patriotic purposes, have become so extensive as to render their preservation and proper exhibition impossible in the limited space available for that purpose under present conditions; therefore,

[[underlined]] Be it enacted: [[/underlined]] That in order properly to care for and exhibit the works of art and historical collections already belonging to the United States, excepting the Freer collection, and to provide for the custody and display of such material as may be acquired hereafter, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be prepared preliminary plans for a building to be located adjacent to the National Museum, on lands belonging to the United States; the first section of said building shall cost not to exceed two million dollars; the plans herein provided for shall cost not to exceed five thousand dollars; and said plans and the location of said building shall be subject to the approval of the National Commission of Fine Arts. When completed, the plans shall be transmitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution."

Mr. Mather, Chairman of the Committee on Ancient European Painting, presented a plan bearing upon the further development of the art interests and institutions of Washington, which was considered at length. It is as follows:

[[initialed]] CDW [[/initialed]]