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New York 22, New York

September 23, 1965

Dear Mr. Cecil:

Do have my thanks for your letter of September 17 which I have read with considerable interest.

I can well understand how the mystery of the HOUDON bust mentioned by Champeaux and Lady Dilke should puzzle you and, in fact, it does me too. Your suggestion that it was disposed of by Sir John Murray Scott when he sold Bagatelle in 1904 seems a reasonable one for, as we know, he did sell quite a few valuable items at that time.

But mitigating against this theory is my impression that he sold then the particularly heavy groupsawhich, according to French law, could have been viewed as "immeuble par destination" (I believe this is the correct legal expression) which means that such items could have been considered as part of the building, such as mantels. I hasten to add that this is strictly my personal interpretation. This "immeuble par destination" could also, I suppose, apply to the statues displayed in the garden where some of them were most probably. Were my reasoning correct it would not, of course, have involved a bust by HOUDON whereas all the others were transferred to the Rue Laffitte. 

You also allude, on page 77, to the "statue grandeur nature en marbe blanc - baigneuse assise"and this reminds me of the fact that I have kept no copy of the inventory now in your hands. Having since acquired a photostatic machine I am wondering whether you would object returning the original document, allowing me thus to have a photostat made of it. This, in turn, would ease our correspondence on some of these topics.

Returning to the "Baigneuse assise", I do not remember it. However, there were quite a number of standing marbles, single figures and groups, of later periods - in other words of little esthetic merit - quite a few of them were displayed around the garden of Sagan and remained there when it was purchased by the City of Paris to become, as you know, the Polish Embassy. That, prior to this, some of them should have been acquired by decorators, just for their decorative qualities, may well have been the case, though none stands out in my mind.

You mention Dr. Flemming R. Curz of Odense, Denmark. Should I hear I will be glad to answer him, but here again I have no recollection of such a marble medallion of Louis XIV.

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