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[top margin] Vases check by post [[/top margin]]

Hotel Ritz
Paris 
June 1, 1950

Dear Liechti:

Herein copy of my letter of today to Lefebvre-Foinet which I assume you will find self-explanatory.

I am also sending you herein special notices on the Philippe de Champaigne, La Hyers, the two Lagneau, the Huet, the Danloux, and the Trinquesse which will form the basis for our catalogue. Will you have them carefully translated and give them to Miss Bazner, but I want to have these special notices kept carefully aside for my return, as they contain information which we could not replace. You will, of course, take care of the immediate insurance of these works of art.

Now as regards the marble busts by Coysevox- from information given me I hope they will be turned over to Chenue, the packer, by Monday, the 19th, and as soon as I will have received some sort of written confirmation from my brother's firm in this respect. I shall directly wire to Mackey-Moran to insure them as agreed and and will forward to you a copy of my cable to them. I do hope these busts will arrive in New York before the gallery closes and have recommended to my brother that all such necessary steps be taken for this.

You know all about the purpose of this shipment and the correspondence exchanged with the Kress Foundation in this connection. It will be necessary, therefore, to have two bases made to receive these busts which, in my opinion, should be placed in the gallery against (but not too close) to the left end wall coming into the gallery so that they will not be seen by people coming out of the elevator. They must be far enough from the wall so that the backs may be visible. You will find the dimensions of the marble bases on which these busts stand, the bottom of which would be, of course, a minimum size for the wooden pedestal-bases to be made by Jack. They can be square, perfectly plain, either painted a grayish white or covered with monk's cloth or red velvet, and should be at least 45" high. You and certainly Jack will remember how extremely heavy and bulky these busts are and thus the resistance these two pedestal bases should offer. I also want to call your attention to the fact that these marble bases are comparatively loose so that the busts must be handled by their bodies themselves and not held by the bases, because they might separate from the busts.

You notice that I have not gone into any details as regards the frames but shall give this to you as soon as I will know exactly myself. All of these empty frames are indeed very valuable and should be carefully put aside, as I have spent a great deal of money on theme. The majority of them are of the period but of course some are not, as you will gather from the consular invoice, etc. The frame for the Philippe de Champaigne as you will have read, will come in four pieces which will be very easy to assemble n account of the markings on the back made by Graff. The Philippe de Champaigne is the painting which I intent putting behind the curtain at the end of the room behind the large easel, the lighting of which will, of course, have to be studied in due time.

(over)

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