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, October 27,1930.
Dear Mr. Erickson,

I have just returned from Europe and trust that these lines will reach you and Mrs. Erickson in the best of health hoping that you have been spending an agreeable summer.

Though I never had the pleasure of your visit here at our Galleries, I will not miss informing you of our acquisitions of important works of art.  We have been fortunate enough to acquire an extremely fine portrait of a man by Giovanni Bellini, which it would give me great pleasure to show you and Mrs. Erickson.

This painting came from the collection of Count Pierre Luigi Sola of Milan and has been for generations in the Busca Serbeloni Palace in Milan (the same palace where Napoleon stayed during his Italian campaign). It even is mentioned in the Baedeker on Page 141, last paragraph, edited in 1913, as being the ornament of the Palace Busca Serbeloni, and at that time was attributed to Antonello de Messine. However, Mr. Berenson considers it undoubtedly a Giovanni Bellini, whom he esteems is the uncontested master of the Venetian paintings, "finer and more elegant than Antonello". Mr. Berenson also states that this picture was painted very shortly after Antonello's death, after 1467.

I hope the above details are tempting enough to you and Mrs. Erickson to come and see this small masterpiece, and I would be delighted to welcome you here at the galleries any afternoon convenient to you. Should you

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