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reading. Most useful has been his contact with the best men in the New York art world, from Theodore Rousseau, debonair curator of paintings at the Metropolitan to that sage and perceptive dealer in modern art, the late Curt Valentin. McCarthy is universally liked by all of them, partly because his bland assurance is refreshing in their world of equivication, partly because  they enjoy his explosive humor and partly because they admire the way in which he has tried so earnestly to "keep up with modern art" and to interpret the laws as helpfully as possible in its interests though he says, "Myself, I don't go for it. I like nice things--like a Renoir."

"You grow into knowing these things," he says calmly, leading you through the islands of crates in the vast [[strikethrough]] storage [[strikethrough]] stroeroom in the Appraiser's Office at 201 Varick Street, "Every cobbler to his last." He points to a painting of a lady in a bulging bustle smelling a rose. "Don't pay any attention to the gold label saying 'Corot.' That's no Corot," he tells you positively, "Oh, the thousands and thousands of Corots I've seen. More than the man ever painted have come to America. More than in the books. Like Van Dyck--a museum director told me ten times as many Van Dycks have been imported than he ever painted. But this dealer won't care. He'll pay the duty and leave on the gold label and sell the picture as a Corot.

"Now take this landscape over there--that dealer was smarter in a way. It has a Gainsborough signature--but Gainsborough never put it there. So the dealer has declared it just as an oil painting made prior to 1830. Anything made before 1830 is an antique and antiques are duty-free. So, I don't have to say that it is a Gainsborough--which it isn't--I just have to say that it is prior to 1830 which if you look at the canvas and cracked paint and everything, well, you'll see it is."

McCarthy's cynicism is not confined to those in the trade. "People let themselves get fooled. If I wanted a diamond, I'd go to the best Fifth Avenue