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[[underlined]] TELEPHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MR. GEORGES SELIGMANN AND BARON CASSEL [[/underlined]]

[[underlined] May 6th, 1944 [[/underlined]]

I (Mr. Georges Seligmann) told him (Baron Cassel) that I was calling personally and that I wanted to explain to him the psychological points of view.

I said that telling a customer an item belongs to an outsider is a system that could hardly be called more than a sales talk because it is as old as the trade; that it has the double advantage of putting the customer in a position to bargain, and the dealer in a position to accept a lower price.

I also said there was a third psychological point of view, which was mine, that having seen he liked the tapestry from the beginning, I spared no effort to enable him to buy it in remembrance of the extreme kindness he had shown me some years ago. And that was how I brought the price down from $8,000. - which I had told him would be the last price he would get - to $6,300. at which figure the firm was taking a loss on its cost price. In order to do this I had to explain to the firm that by suffering a loss they would acquire his good will (Cassel's) and make a regular customer out of him. I did not succeed in doing this and it was just too bad.

Cassel answered that he always found out the truth and asked why I did not tell him that before - that he would have bought the tapestry just as well if it had been the firm's. I said, no, he had proved it ever so many times by coming in and not making offers on things he liked. He said, yes, that he had liked things, but the prices were so crazy. I replied that this time I gave him a chance to know the price down and he did it. Cassel said, ^[["]] yes, but I had use for it,^[["]] to which I answered that I knew it from the beginning because he was buying anything at that time whether he could use it or not, and later he knew he could use the tapestry and was in a much better position to make an offer than if he had known we were the owners.

He answered that it would not have made any difference to him when he could use it he would have made an offer. His estimate was always $5,000. and he bought it expensively at $6,000.

I told he knew perfectly well that it was not expensive and that he bought it very cheaply even. He asked since when we had the tapestry and I answered that we had it for many years but did not recollect how many. I asked if he wanted me to check it; and added that anyhow when we bought it it was an amazing bargain and he bought it cheaper.
                    (*)
The conversation ended when he said he considered the incident closed, but neither he nor I spoke of sending the $300. that he still owes. 

(*) I told him that anyhow I did not see what harm he had suffered because in any case he would not have been able to buy the tapestry for less than $6,300. one way of the other. Then he said that I made his lose his time.