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10

is dutiable as a replica, a copy or a reproduction, all of which may be polite euphemisms for that ugly word "fake." And in these fields, where art experts fear to tread (and where, indeed, they often dare not tread lest they get sued under laws of slander of title), the U.S. art examiners rush fearlessly ahead.

Their task is not always an easy one. In 1933, for instance, a customs inspector was confronted with an old portrait of Benjamin Franklin allegedly by the French artist, Deplessis (who died in 1802), a painter whose work he had never seen. [[left margin]] F [[/left margin]] He admitted the painting's antiquity and its artistic merit, but he did not pass it as an original because of the enormous difference in its value and [[strikethrough]] that [[/strikethrough]] the value of the paintting in the Boston Museum by the same artist. Hr may, indeed, have had a point --but the court overruled him.

The court overruled, too, another appraiser who declared that a batch of English portraits [[strikethrough]] were indeed produced prior to the year 1830 (and therefore duty-free antiquities) but [[/strikethrough]] were not originals because they were not by Romney and Reynolds et al. as was claimed by the New York dealer who was importing them. [[strikethrough]] c [[/strikethrough]] The dealer was caught in a somewhat embarassing position [[strikethrough]] as [[/strikethrough]] since he had already sold them all [[left margin]] FA [[/left margin]] as original paintings by Romney and Reynolds et al. He protested and won. but those in the inner circles of the art world who know this dealer's [[strikethrough]] exhibition [[/strikethrough]] stock and have seen the collections [[strikethrough]] including suspiciously old [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] he formed for nouveau oil-riche Southwest buyers [[strikethrough]] in the Thirties [[/strikethrough]] still wonder if the examiner was not right!

Transcription Notes:
I didn't know how to show that a section of paragraph 2 was marked off by pencil and labeled F in the margin. also if the line that is handwritten and then crossed out should be transcribed