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CALIFORNIA PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOR
Lincoln Park
San Francisco, California

[[right margin]] RML [[/right margin]]

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

April 19th, 1938.

Dear Bob:-

Ever so many thanks for your prompt reply to my wire. I, on the other hand, feel very remiss on two counts: 1) for not having acknowledged Helen's charming letter long before this; and 2) for having been so slow about sending your Frau the photograph to which I referred. I am happy to say that the important document (!) was dispatched today.

Now let me explain the abrupt wire I sent you this morning. We are at last embarked on plans for a summer show, and God help us, it is to be a large Exhibition of Venetian Painting from the 15th through the 18th Centuries. As you can imagine we have designs on Mrs. Erickson's Titian. I have written her because I met her several years ago - not that I think that she will remember the occasion and be prejudiced in our favor for that reason! - and we exchanged a letter afterwards. But sometimes those chance encounters can be put to good use. I guess I don't have to point that out to you, for were this not true you wouldn't bother with meeting people in the casual way that we toured around while you were in California. Of course Mrs. E. may have been badgered a lot by various people since I saw her - in which case we will probably be out of luck.

You may recall that I mentioned that I had some plans in mind about what this museum could do in the way of making some decent acquisitions - thereby gaining the good graces of such illustrious firms as your own. My chief idea is that we should commit ourselves to the purchase of at least one picture from our summer show, thereby holding out the legitimate bait that at least one sale of consequence will result from all the borrowing. As far as the Venetian Show is concerned, we were a little dashed to receive the Knoedler catalog - just after we had decided on the field that we would exploit this summer. Naturally, one of the main things in favor of Venetian Painting was that it had not been "done" recently on a large scale. Of course the Knoedler show includes only about twenty-two pictures, whereas we are contemplating having nearer a hundred. Even so, Walter rather wryly remarked that we could be thankful if we got that many first rate things together! The prospect of the difficulty of getting up this show is not too encouraging - but it has one bright aspect so far as I am concerned, and that is that I shall very probably be coming to New York to"do or die" for the dear old Legion Of Honor's honor! We expect to open

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