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5 East 57th., St.
New York, January 7th., 1947

Dear F.G. and Dear René:

As the first part of this letter is of greater interest to F. G. than it is to René it will explain the manner in which I am addressing you.

Before starting, however, let me tell you that I have decided not to go to Paris now, and hope further that some of the questions I wanted to settle by going over we will be able to reach solutions about without my having to undertake such a voyage at this time.

EXCHANGE OF WORKS OF ART BETWEEN NEW YORK AND PARIS: By same mail I am sending to Peck, requesting him to give it to Tuot for immediate action, a letter the New York firm is writing to the Office des Changes in order to obtain their permission to proceed with these exchanges. The point at issue is simply to know whether you, F.G., are in accord, looking at it purely from the financial angle of your Paris firm, in other words whether you are more interested in having as assets the items belonging to New York and which are at present in Paris than the items which are in New York and belong to the old partnership in liquidation? If you agree with me that those items are more saleable in Paris than the items I suggest keeping here then I would like you both to instruct Peck to proceed at once, by requesting Tuot to take the letter to the Office des Changes. Rene wrote me a few days ago, his long-hand letter of December 24th., that business could not be done between Paris and New York. I know this full well, and I am not suggesting doing any business, in other words there is no exchange of money. It is purely on the basis of exchange or "troc" that this has to be looked at, and as I wrote to you both preciously, two dealers have confirmed to me that the Office des Changes allows and grants such exchanges as long as money is not involved. This in no way will interfere with the conversations René has with the Office des Changes, as it does not fundamentally in any way alter the situation. The only reason why I am so keen about doing this is because I do not see what we are gaining by this procrastination, and constantly relegating to the "Calendes Grecques" the solution of even the simplest questions. As long as there are no further ties between Paris and New York why not have a clear inventory list including the things which we have and own, so that we can then handle them the way we want? If you refer to the letters I wrote to you previously on this matter of exchange you will find all the reasons, and I don't see any prupose in going into it all over again. However you will notice that I have left out from the list of exchanges, the Demarne, the Champaigne, and the Cima, as they may complicate matters.

I would like you to realize that neither one of you ever acknowledged receipt of this letter, and that your silence, which evidently inferred your desire to drop the matter, could almost lead one to believe that you considered it as such a crazy notion, that it wasn't even worthy of an answer. I must say that this is an attitude which I simply can't understand, and which irks me beyond words. I am not in the least impressed when I am told this or that cannot be done, when I know that is is being done and perfectly legitimately and endorsed by the official offices.

LIQUIDATION OF THE NEW PARIS CORP: Months ago I wrote to you both that decisions had to be reached as regards the liquidation of the company by November 15th., and this in view of the reports we had to make here. I have since written you at length on the subject, and have also sent you all the figures. There again it would have seemed to me elementary that at least an acknowledgement of these papers could have been sent, but were I not to know that you have received them, as I took special care to see that they would reach you, I would not even be sure that you have them. In view of the papers you should have been in a position by now to have had your final liquidation papers drawn up and sent to me, as I need an official document from the liquidator to confirm the declaration we made here. I would like you to tell me what you intend doing in this matter, as you must understand that this has to be settled by an official confirmation at the