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[[left margin]] Malone [[/left margin]]

Suvretta House
St. Moritz, Engadine
Switzerland

July 26, 1954

Dear Lee:

Your good letter of July 16th reached me here and I was much interested to read of your planned exhibition. Let me say from the start that, of course, as usual, you can count on my cooperation and that I will be happy to do so, as I realize, furthermore, how important it is for me to be represented in such an exhibition with works of art of first quality and merit.

However, I am truly unable at this writing to make constructive suggestions, for several reasons, namely that I do not know the dates of your show and this has an importance insofar as certain items could be available at certain times and not at others. A further ground for uncertainty is that I am still unsure about certain purchases I am contemplating which, were I successful, would give an additional choice. Also my suggestions would depend greatly upon whether certain periods would be more appropriate than others.

Irrespective of the above, however, I could already start by recommending -

My great Fontainebleau School painting (attributed to Cousin le fils) of "Lot and His Daughters."
A very fine painting by Strozzi, "David holding the Head of Goliath", large in size and extremely attractive in spite of the subject, which is among my recent purchases and seen by no one so far.

Also a self-portrait by Fantin-Latour, again of good size, and you know how rare such portraits are in the world altogether and particularly in the U.S.

Among early works of art, I would suggest a very exquisite ivory plaque, French 14th century, and a small boxwood figure, a standing Virgin holding the Child, also French, 14th century.

In the line of large sculpture, is my superb Verona stone bas-relief by Lombardi, representing two angels, beautifully polychromed in gold on a blue background - a truly monumental and extremely rare piece of around 1500. It is at present at the Detroit Museum where it has been under consideration and its fate is not yet decided.

Here is already a choice sampling, but as I started by saying, so much will depend upon the date of your exhibition and the further success of my negotiations for some of the works of art at present under consideration by me.

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