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We also have the official patronage of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Federal Republic of Germany, Arthur Burns.

We would be very grateful to you for loans from your collection, which would be of vital importance to us in our attempt to present a broad view of de Kooning's art, and we take the liberty of enclosing our loan form. In case there are drawings in your collection which are of interest for our exhibition, Paul Cummings, curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, will contact you directly.

We are, I assure you, aware of the responsibility that the custody of valuable and irreplaceable works places upon us and every precaution will be taken to safeguard the loans. The exhibition will be accompanied to Berlin, Paris and back to New York, where its packing, unpacking, and installation will be supervised by members of our professional staff. All pieces will be fully insured at values indicated by the lenders and details regarding transportation, assembling and dispersal will be meticulously supervised at all stages of the operation. All costs concerning the above will, of course, be assumed by our-selves.

We are going to publish a comprehensive catalogue in English, German, And French with numerous colour-plates and several essays by competent German, American and French art historians as well as several texts by de Kooning himself, translated into German and French for the first time. Till now there is no German publication about de Kooning and all the English and French publications are out of print. It is our intention to reproduce all the works being part of the exhibition in colour and we, therefore, would be grateful to you if you would furnish us the corresponding colour transparencies (if possible 8 x 10 inches) on our account.

Hoping that you will give favorable consideration to this request we would be grateful to you for returning three copies of our loan forms completed and signed, retaining the yellow copy for your file.

Thanking you in advance for your cooperation, we are,

Very sincerely yours, 

Jörn Merkert
(Jörn Merkert)
Secretary of the Dept. of Visual Arts