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[[preprinted]] 
COMMONWEALTH 2132
CABLE: CASTANO

GIOVANNI CASTANO
171 NEWBURY STREET
BOSTON, MASS.

PAINTINGS 
[[/preprinted]]

April 9, 1938

Mr. Germain Seligmann
Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc.
3 East 51st Street
New York City

Dear Mr. Seligmann:

Thank you very kindly for your letter. I think that probably it would be a very good idea for you to send me the Pastel by Degas. I understand very well the value of it and the importance of the picture.

If you have not submitted this to John Nicholas Brown of Providence, I should like to do so. There has been considerable interest in it here in Boston also.

If you have offered it fore $30,000., I naturally will expect you to pay me a commission on that price if I sell it. I of course will let you know about any offers made on it.

When I said ten days, I am afraid it was too short a time, as I may have to take it out West with me. Since Mr. Siple at the Cincinnati Art Museum has seen it and was very much impressed by it, I might be able to sell it to one of my customers there in Cincinnati. Of course, it takes time to do this, so perhaps it would be better for you to first send me three photographs of the picture. Then when I would need the picture, I would write and have you send it to me. It would be best to send it to me by American Express crated carefully, as it is a pastel.

Let me know from time to time of items that come in, especially of the French Modern School and of original religious subjects not too expensive, namely, around $5000.

I have a call now for a Gainsborough Portrait for about $7000., or for an important English portrait not by a minor artist. If it is nice and colorful, I could sell it.