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5 East 57th., St.
New York 22, N.Y.

September 29th., 1948

Dear F-G:

COYSEVOX BUSTS: I have just come back from Washington where I had a long talk with Charles Seymour of the National Gallery, as a result of which you may have at any moment the visit of his immediate superior, John Walker. A great deal of this will depend on the latter's reaction to the two Coysevox busts.
Meanwhile, however, it would be necessary for you to have photographs made. The ones you gave Charles Seymour, he tells me, are sepias, whereas he wants black and white glossies, and the bigger the photographs the better, but besides this it will be necessary, in case we get any further, to have photographs of details. By this I do not mean enlargements of the photographs, but two or three close-ups of each bust, and each of the details to be as large as the photographs of the bust itself.

I would suggest, for instance, that as regards "Louis XVI" you have a close-up of the right shoulder of the King, the one with the Lion's head, showing also the carving of the loose parts of the armor, and at the same time some of the carving of the hair of the loose parts of the wig around the shoulder. Another close-up could be the profile, in other words, just the face taken from the other side, so it will give an idea of the depth of the tooling in the hair and the modeling of the face. A third one could be a detail of the lower front part of the armor and drapery.

Of the bust of Philippe you could also have one of the shoulders and another profile. I do not recall the back of the busts, but if they are fully in the round, a good idea would be to have the photograph of one of the backs, at least of the head.

When you have done this, and I would be of the opinion of not waiting, as someone might propose something else to them, I would like you to send me three sets of each as, knowing them, after they receive one they may ask me for another, and I want to be sure to have an extra set in reserve. Please be sure to forward them to me with plenty of cardboard, for, as I think I have written you previously, your photographs generally arrive in pitiful condition, and in this case we could not use them. The presentation of such matters plays a great role in this country, as with them I will have to make full pamphlets etc.

BANDINUS: Now, Charles Seymour told me you had spoken to him about a very important Italian statue, which you were putting up at the time. I told him that though I did not know of course what you were actually doing, I was wondering whether it was the full length marble statue of Bandinus. Should this be the case, I would like you sometime to let me have photographs of the latter. One of the details must cover the signature [[strikethrough]] which, [[/strikethrough]] as, if I recall correctly the statue is fully signed.
If you have the fiche on the Bandinus I would like to have all the details, as I have nothing about it here. I recall years ago having found the statue reproduced in some booklet we had in Paris.
All these questions of pedigree, reproductions etc have an importance here that I could not sufficiently stress.

SAINT-AUBIN; In the course of a personal letter received this morning from René Huyghe, there is a paragraph about the Saint-Aubin painting, of which I am sending you a copy. I do not understand how he happens to be writing to me about it, except that with the exporting request you probably mentioned this firm. Do let me know exactly what you are doing in this respect, so that I will be in a position to answer him.
It seems to me, anyway, that the price of $5,000, I should say equivalent, should be a very acceptable figure.

Copy of letter to Mr. Abreu
enclosed with this to F-C-