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Recd. 4.19.'60-

Mr. Jacques Seligmann
5 East 57 St.
New York, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Seligmann:

This letter is to once again thank you for the very generous courtesy which you extended to me during my visit to your galleries last week, and to remind you of my request for a possible loan of a Gustave Moreau painting for the Gustave Moreau exhibition which is planned for May 13-June 8th at Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum. I was overwhelmed [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] by the quality of both the Hercules and the Hydra and the Orpheus and the Maiden of Thrace which I saw, at your suggestion, on loan at the Frumkin Gallery. Either of these works would make a major addition to our exhibition.

As I remarked when I talked with you about the possibilities of a Moreau loan to the exhibition, the Fogg Museum would assume full financial responsibility for the insurance and transportation of the painting. May I add however, that due to the limited budgeting allowed Museum Seminar exhibitions the students organizing them are obliged to request that paintings on loan be sent through the services of the Boston Trucking Co. As I may have remarked, the Boston Trucking Company's main economy consists of the fact that its individual care for the paintings being transported dispenses with the necessity of expensive crating - the Trucking Co. is used almost exclusively by the Fogg for the transportation of countless paintings and sculptures of the highest quality and has recieved the Fogg's highest recommendation for its safety as well as economy. During my visit you remarked that the loose canvas of the Hercules would make uncrated traveling perhaps dangerous for so large a work and I hope that although this may be so concerning the Hercules it may not also hold for the Orpheus.

If it is possible for you to send to our exhibition either of the two paintings under these transport conditions we shall arrange for the Trucking Co. to pick up the painting sometime early in the week of May 9 and to return it to you late in the week of June 6, or early in that week if you prefer. We hope that you may find it possible to lend us one of these masterpieces from your gallery and again thank you for your kind consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,
Michael C.D. Macdonald
Michael C.D. Macdonald
Claverly Hall 22
Harvard College
Cambridge, Mass.

[[right margin]] Macdonald
Harvard U [[/right margin]]

Transcription Notes:
sic: recieved