Viewing page 125 of 474

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-117-

of objects, the legal title to which had long been unclear, that the Post Foundation recently proposed be distributed as between the Smithsonian and Hillwood Museum.

The following letter from G. Bowdoin Craighill, esquire, representing the Post Foundation, outlines this proposal in clear detail. In summary, the Foundation proposed that two objects of this small group (an 18th century gold chalice fashioned for Catherine II of Russia and an imperial Russian medallion, the Order of the Golden Fleece) be added to the list of objects whose ownership was conveyed to the Post Foundation by the Board of Regents in 1978. Documents contemporaneous with the donations of these two objects clearly indicate they should be at Hillwood. In exchange for this consideration, the Post Foundation agreed to waive any right, title, or remaining interest in all other such objects. Among these are an assortment of historical jewels, a jade vase, Hapsburg laces, and the like.

This proposal has been approved as a necessary and proper resolution of the legal status of these objects. Its acceptance assures that the chalice and Fleece will be seen by the visiting public in their proper context along with the thousands of imperial Russian objects on permanent display at Hillwood. It also lays to rest all remaining questions of title as between the Smithsonian and the Foundation.