Viewing page 29 of 42
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
COPY PERCY HAGERMAN Colorado Springs, Colo. Colorado Springs, May 5, 1944 Mr. Germain Séligmann 5 East 57th. street New York, N.Y. Dear Mr. Séligmann:- I thank you very much for your letter of May 3rd. and greatly appreciate your thinking of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in connection with the placing of the PICASSO collection of Mrs. Callery. We have never been able to show a good collection of the work of that artist and the possibility of having such a collection as the one you describe is very exciting. There are, however, a number of considerations to which thought must be given. To begin with our gallery space is not very large. You mention the fact that ten of the paintings are very large in size. How large does this mean? Would it be possible for you to send me the outside dimensions of all the paintings so that we could make a definite estimate of the amount of wall space that would be required? For the last two years we have had in our galleries, a considerable number of fine paintings sent us for the duration of the war emergency by the Phillips Gallery in Washington, the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the San Diego Museum and several private owners on both coasts. At times these refugee pictures have occupied all our available space, but recently quite a number of them have been returned to the owners and I do not think it will be long before all will be returned. For this reason we will in the near future have more available space than for some time in the past. At times we have been obliged to store some of these pictures to make room for other exhibitions which we felt bound to show. The same conditions will prevail in the future. We have already planned and announced a number of exhibitions for the near future. For this reason I do not think we could possibly undertake to show all of the Callery collection all of the time, but we have good fireproof vaults and storage room in the basement where they could be taken care of during such time as we could not show them. Another point that must be considered is — for how long a time would Mrs. Callery probably want us to retain the collection? Naturally we could not undertake [[strikethrough]]the[[/strikethrough]] to keep them for an indefinite period. My belief is that there are other museums in the west that would be just as glad to have them as we would if this would be satisfactory to the owner. I am perfectly free to say that we would like to have the collection first provided it is not too large for us to handle. I am somewhat afraid that twenty Picasso paintings, ten drawings, plus five or six paintings by Leger would put our facilities to something of a strain, but we would like to undertake it if the strain would not be too great. We could not possibly handle the Leger measuring 13' by 15'8". Whether we could handle the rest would depend largely on how big the large Picassos actually are. So if you can give me the information asked for above as to sizes, we can come to a quick decision. Another point is this. How about transportation and insurance charges? Would the owner expect to take care of them or would she expect us to do so? You have suggested that I write you with perfect frankness and I have done so. As I said, you have presented an exciting possibility to my mind and I am sure that if it turned out that we could get these pictures and drawings they would excite an immense amount of interest in this community and attract a great many visitors from neighboring cities. Thanking you again for your letter and with best regards, I am Very sincerely yours (SIGNED) PERCY HAGERMAN. (See P.S. on reverse.........
