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February 18, 1946

Dear Francois Gerard:

Re David Bundler; the more I think about it the more I am interested mainly in his modern paintings which are here; much more than ^[[in]] his eighteenth century drawings that Sanglier has offered for years, right and left; while I never heard that his paintings are ^[[x]] ^[[handwriting in left margin]] [[x or have been]][[/handwriting in left margin]] on the market.  If it is possible for you, you could ask him whether he would consider parting with any of his modern paintings and tell him, in any case, that should he do so we would be terribly interested to hear about it and are open to any type of dealings with him, purchase, consignment, etc.

During your conversation you may find out what he has done with his eighteenth century drawings because if they were free, we might be interested in handling them.  It is very difficult to find out whether they have really moved to Byk.  If we ask Byk and if he hasn't had the idea it will give him the idea.  If we just ask the question of David Bundler's son and don't ask him to approach his Papa, he will be offended when the order will come to him to hand over to us anything from the collection. ^[[XX]] For these reasons, if it doesn't trouble you very much, I will be grateful to you to tackle the matter from your end.
^[[handwriting in left margin]][[xx and I have us rather talk with Papa that we know so much better]] [[/handwriting in left margin]]

Germain wishes me to tell you that he prefers to have ^[[handwriting]][[the]][[handwriting]] Torche[[handwriting correction]]r[[/handwriting correction]]es back rather than the busts and that he is of the opinion to pay the $1,000. to Durlacher.  We delayed cabling you about it until today because in the meanwhile we re-offered the busts to the National Gallery, who just answered "Not interested".

Thank you for Dollfus' address.  My friend Pendulophile who continues to have an amazingly clear view of the situations, but who unfortunately is human and for that reason, I believe, can make mistakes, expects a frightful crash in works of art and paintings because he thinks that while the purchasing power is going to be reduced,the people who owned the works of art will be under the absolute necessity to sell in order to eat.  This applies to France.  What is your opinion about it?

I received your cable concerning the number 292 of the second volume of PICASSO and answered to the best of my knowledge in the absence of Germain, who is vacationing for a fortnight in Mexico, where I hope he will dig out some clients.  Th[[overwritten e with is]] type of painting is [[underline]] highly [[/underline]] desirable and we have a number of clients who wish exactly that, and I pray God with crossed fingers that we will get that picture over.

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