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- Page II -

December 16th, 1937

Allow me to take up the various points in the order which you have mentioned them in your letter:-

I.  When I spoke to you on the telephone the other night, I told you that I would be very pleased to handle all negotiations personally for you and personally take charge of your entire collection for your account.  I added, however, that I would, of course, have to post my firm about this as it would be impossible for me in any business transaction whatsoever to act as an entirely independent agent using the firm's time and facilities to do so.  You must further realize that my contacts and associations no matter how good or close they may be are nevertheless based on the fact that I do represent the firm; although after discussing it with Mr. Seligmann, I feel sure that I will be the only one to take care of this business in the firm, and in fact you will be glad to know that Mr. Seligmann has spontaneously granted me special advantages for this undertaking.  Therefore, although you and I alone would make the final decisions regarding sales, prices and to whom the drawings would be offered, nevertheless all this would have to be cleared through the firm which brings me to the second point.

II.  In the event of sale of any drawings, bills would quite naturally have to be sent out.  In this connection, I am in no position to send out my own bills as I have no business of my own and, therefore, the bills would have to be sent out on the letterhead of this firm.  You must also realize that in the history of this firm we have handled millions of dollars worth of paintings, drawings and works of art, and our records are an open book in-so-far as that in cases where we have sold things either on consignment or on a commission basis such as is your case, these have always been billed by us and a check for the full amount less our commission sent to the owner immediately upon receipt of payment.  The same would have to apply to your case.  No institution such as the Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum, or that matter, any individuals of good standing, would think of doing business on any other basis because they would first want to have a definite bill or invoice on records, and I am absolutely positive that they would, under no condition, forward a check to you if I had sold them any drawings.  The only variation in the above principle in your case would be that I would retain the commission instead of the firm.

III.  Paragraph two of your letter starts with the following sentence:  "The drawings shall be put at your disposal in a place still to be agreed upon".  The only sound, practical place that the drawings could be deposited, and this point I must add is irrefutable, would be with me here in the firm.  This is not only so from the points which I have elaborated above, but is also the only practical way that the drawings can be

t.s.v.p.