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CMH/M

3 East 51st Street, 
New York City.

March 13th, 1935.
My dear Germain:

You must have received from Clyfford Trevor a cable concerning an order given by GRENVILLE WINTHROP to purchase for Ffrs.31,000. at the utmost, a Rodin drawing - #12 of the Catalogue of the Vitta Sale to be held in Paris on March 15th. I am quite certain that by the time you receive this letter, the drawing shall have been bought by you for Mr. Winthrop's account at a sun considerably less than Ffrs.31,000.

I do not want to annoy you by relating how unpleasant and utterly rude Clyfford Trevor's attitude towards me has been, because I pay no attention to that. However you can easily understand that when I called this drawing to his attention, and told Trevor that this was the drawing for Winthrop, and I also called his attention to an Ingres painting in the same sale, he resented that very much; told me that he didn't need me to call his attention to things like that as he knew what he had to do....etc.

As I knew that you were not inclined right now to purchase drawings I felt that it would be unethical on our part to let either Birnbaum or Owen by this drawing for a relatively low price and sell it afterwards in this country with a very good profit, to clients whom we know perfectly well. I therefore thought not only would we be in the way of these two gentlemen, but that at the same time we could do something very nice for Mr. Winthrop, and I thought of helping Clyfford Trevor by building himself up in the eyes of Mr. Winthrop. All of this Trevor resented to the highest degree.

Nevertheless, the result was that Mr. Winthrop was very much interested in the drawing and gave an order up to Ffrs.31,000.

Now I know the value of drawings in Europe and in America sufficiently well to know that this drawing is worth around Ffrs.10,000. Paris price; that Owen, Birnbaum, or ourselves, can afford to buy it from Frs.12,000. to almost Frs.20,000 - but there is no reason to let this drawing go for a very small price if we don't buy it, and I don't believe either that in view of the prices we have been asking for our drawings - and especially to Mr. Winthrop - it would be wise to let him have it for nothing; although I do not have the mentality of a dealer who wants to speculate on his client's interest.

As I wrote you previously, I am personally very enthusiastic about the drawing, and if you would have facilitated the financial side of the question for me, I would myself have bought the drawing up to Ffrs.18,000 (with the expenses: Frs.20,000.) being convinced that I could one day or another re-sell this drawing at a good profit. However, since Mr. Winthrop has given his order for

Frs.31,000. I will not.....

Transcription Notes:
Reopened for Editing 2024-02-03 03:51:37 fixed typo. sent back to review. Reopened for Editing 2024-02-02 13:56:09 ----------