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3 East 51st. Street, New York, New York. March 8th., 1935. My dear Germain: Mr. Henschel: I am writing you a few very confidential lines and you can guess what my source of information is. Mr. Henschel, with his beautifully cut clothes and elegant walking stick - has treated us in a very Satinover manner, to a certain extent. The Duccio plaque which he said was sold, is not sold; the Desiderio bust which he said was not for sale, is for sale and is being offered. As far as I can make out the object d´art have not been sold yet. Henschel did also with Drey and with Byk exactly what he did with us and used our knowledge of the value of sculpture to form his own opinion, and he has told Drey and Byk exactly the same thing he told us, and he is now trying to sell that sculpture himself. I don´t blame him for a moment for trying to do alone, what he can but he could have been a little more frank about it. But as long as we were trying to interfere with his business, I suppose he had to do his best to stop us from interfering. He is probably in the back of the trouble with Mrs. Hamilton´s picture, and he probably did his best to stop you from going into Mr. Morgan´s house and from trying to get in, and what he said might be true and might also very well not be true. I have asked G.B. for an appointment to speak about the Vigée LeBrun and the LeNain. I had Mr. Whele´s visit, as I wrote, but I learned from a very different source that they were considering other Morgan purchases right now, and if they carry out that plan, they certainly won´t be in the market for some time - so that our best bet now is to try to interfere with them. Today´s buyers: I had a very interesting conversation with somebody in reference to money changing hands in America, who drew my attention to the fact the merchants of the Kress, Straus, type, are the money men of today, and also that the sales made recently seem to point toward very important pieces, rather than medium priced pieces for the middle class. In the last few years the middle class, who derive their income from mortgages, etc., have lost everything. Some insurance companies - and businesses of that type - have made a lot of money. This explains the success of Mr. Williams, who purchased the Rembrandt and Duchess of Sutherland (bought some time ago). He may be the buyer of the Rubens portrait of the Morgan Collection. Jonas - Fragonard: I have made an arrangement with Jonas by which we can show and wire him an offer on his Fragonard, but if I remember the French law he is making a mistake, and will never be allowed to dispose of it that way. The picture will probably end up in an auction sale, and he is going to lose the money he has loaned on the pictures.
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-02 13:39:47
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-03 02:40:29