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COLORADO SPRINGS FINE ARTS CENTER
West Dale Street • Colorado Springs • Colorado

May 15, 1944

Germain Seligmann, Esq.
5 East 57th Street
New York 22, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Seligmann:

I have just received your letter of May 12th for which I thank you. After giving the matter of Mrs. Callery's Picasso collection further consideration, we have come to the conclusion that for us to take the whole collection would be a little beyond our capacity. I should like to suggest that, inasmuch as Mrs. Callery has received applications from other museums, the plan of splitting the collection would be feasible from our point of view. We would be very glad if she would send us five of the larger paintings, five or six of the smaller and as many of the drawings as she could let us have. We could handle this smaller group far more satisfactorily and keep them all on exhibition much more steadily than we could the very large collection. I can see that our somewhat limited gallery space would be strained too much if we were to have the whole collection, due to the fact that other exhibitions must be taken care of.

On such a basis as the one I suggest, we would be very happy to take some of the pictures for a minimum period of a year. Furthermore, we would pay the crating and transportation charges. It has always been the custom when we have received pictures from dealers, other museums or private collections that the insurance should be paid by the owners who, in all cases that have come to my attention, have carried insurance in any case which would apply while they were in our museum as well as in their regular homes. I take it for granted that this custom would apply in the present case as well.

I assure you that we greatly appreciate your bearing us in mind in connection with the temporary disposal of this fine collection, and I hope that you will find it possible to handle it in the manner I suggest. I agree with you that it would be quite a "feather in our cap" to have a part of this collection in Colorado Springs.

With kind personal regards, I am,

Very sincerely,

(signed) PERCY HAGERMAN

President

PH:H