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-Page II-

December 19th, 1938

However, some pictures left Hungary, as you know, to go to the Amsterdam Exhibition, and I know that the owners will not have them returned to Hungary unless they are compelled to do so.

Among the pictures I know in Budapest are some in which I think the Boston Museum would be very much interested, and, as a matter of fact, there is at least one which I feel convinced the Museum would buy because it is an extremely important work by a painter not represented in Boston, and the purchase price of which would be a very low one -- not at all in the figures that we have been used to mention in connection with great masterpieces of the 19th century. But even if the Boston Museum did not want to buy it, it seems to me an almost sure bet with Mr. Winthrop or any American Museum.

To finally come to the point, here is what I am asking you to think over and let me know your answer at your earliest possible convenience.

Do you think that the Fogg Art Museum or the Boston Museum could delegate me as their unofficial representative to select some pictures from private collections in Hungary of Czecho-Slovakia to be part of an exhibition which either one of these two institutions would be willing to organize in Boston or Cambridge? Could it also be possible to have the American Embassy in Budapest or the American Consulate informed of this, so that they could ask the Minister of Fine Arts in Budapest to grant the permit for these pictures to be sent to America on exhibition? May-be it might be easier to have somebody in the official circles of Washington contact the Hungarian Minister in Budapest, at the same time confirming these arrangements to the American Embassy in Hungary who would also contact the  Minister of Fine Arts. Through this way of doing things, I think that the pictures could leave Hungary. 

Thus, at the same time, we would have succeeded in helping to a great extent the Jewish owners of these pictures, and also obtain for ourselves pictures which I consider of the greatest interest.

I hope you will not object to my having written you in such a  personal, familiar and confidential way, and I hope you will understand the spirit of my lines.

If things could be arranged very, very quickly, I plan to leave for Europe on the 26th of December or at the latest, the first days in January.

Hoping very much to see you before then,
Please believe me to be
Yours very respectfully,