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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Mrs. Hirshhorn and I are grateful for Mrs. Johnson's invitation to luncheon at the White House on May 21, which we accept with pleasure.

As Mrs. Johnson knows, I have had a number of conversations with Dr. Dillon Ripley and Mr. Roger Stevens concerning my art collection. Both of these gentlemen have seen a portion of my collection and have urged that I donate it to the Smithsonian Institution. Their thought, as I understand it, is that my collection would be housed in a modern museum to be named the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum, which would be erected on the plot of land on Constitution Avenue between 9th and 11th Streets in Washington, D. C.; that the collection and the museum would be maintained, preserved and developed in perpetuity by the Smithsonian Institution under my name; and that the museum would be operated by a Board of Trustees on which I would have appropriate representation, in accordance with plans and procedures to be agreed upon between the Smithsonian Institution and myself.

My collection has been built up over a period of more than 40 years and I believe that I can safely state, in all modesty, that it is one of the finest collections of modern sculpture and paintings in the world.  Dr. H. H. Arnason, Vice President, Art Administration of the Guggenheim Museum, where a segment of my sculpture collection was exhibited in 1963, has referred to my sculpture as "the most comprehensive collection of modern sculpture in existence".

I own over 1,500 peices [[pieces]] of sculpture, produced by such world famous sculptors as Rodin, Bourdelle, Maillol, Manzu, Degas, Daumier, Sir Henry Moore, Lipchitz, Brancusi, Sir Jacob Epstein, Renoir, Picasso, Calder, Giacometti, Marinim Matisse and others. My collection includes 63 works of Sir Henry Moore, generally acknowledged to be the greatest living sculptor. I believe that this is the largest single collection of Sir Henry Moore's works in the world. My Giacomettis and Matisses constitute the largest holdings in a single collection in America. Rodin is represented in my collection by 16 works, including a major cast of Burghers of Calais.

My collection includes over 4,800 paintings and drawings by scores of American and European artists. I have always sought to encourage young artists -- particularly American artists -- by purchasing their works of art. My collection contains a thorough representation of the realists, the expressionists, the romantics, and the abstractionists.

The following are some of the better known painters who are represented in my collection: Picasso, Eakins, Hassam, Munch, Bellows, Sloan, Kuhm, Hopper, Soyer, Wyeth, Beckmann, Marin, Weber, Ben Shahn, Jack Levine, Maurice Prendergast, Dali, Francis Bacon, Larry Rivers, Eilshemius, Kline, de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Kuniyoshi, Milton Avery, Philip Evergood, Stuart Davis, Feininger and Hans Hosmann.