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December 21, 1945

Dear Mr. Peck:

I thank you for your letter of November 1st turned over to me by Mr. Robbins, which for a moment made me think of the happier days before the war when such correspondence was the rule rather than the exception.

Now as regards your questions, the drawing by DEGAS "Femme au Menton Levé" was exchanged against a pair of bronze fire dogs, representing "Mars and Minerva", attributed to ASPETTI.

The MATISSE "Interior" is owned jointly by Paris and the estate of Rene Seligmann, our firm never having had an interest in it. For certain reasons this painting is not for sale at present and is hanging at the apartment of Miss Seligmann.

As far as the frames for the set of furniture, #3916-11441, were concerned, we were faced at the time of the removal of our galleries to our present much smaller quarters with the disagreeable alternative of either putting them in storage at a monthly rate of approximately $7.00, or selling them at auction which we finally decided upon -& you know the unfortunate result. Of course, we tried hard to sell them to one of our clients but could not arouse any interest. On the other hand, if you figure sixty months' storage at $7.00, you arrive at $420 so you can readily see that we made the best of a bad situation. I was glad to hear that the tapestries for this set are safe.

I am sorry to say that you have no credit of any kind in our books.

I am enclosing a copy of a letter written by you on May 21, 1940 to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique which you will find self-explanatory. Will you be good enough to follow this matter up and see that Mr. Germain Seligman[[strikethrough]]n[/strikethrough]] is refunded the difference to him [[underlined]] directly in New York. [[/underlined]] I would also be glad to hear from you whether you have taken the necessary steps in order to transfer the American-owned securities to New York.

With my best wishes for the holidays,

Very friendly yours,

Enc. 

GS