Previous | Next
Part: 12 Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536 Page 1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950 of 1143
Well, that depended on what we had. I think it would have been from a half million to a million dollars a year, roughly, depending on the year and what we happened to have. It wasn't a huge business, but if the pictures had been intelligently bought during this era when the times were very good, one made a moderate amount of money, and there was no income tax.
You spoke of going to English country houses, how did you gain entree? Were they in need of disposing their collections?
Some were, sometimes. And sometimes we got entree through friends and sometimes through other dealers. And it was really quite fascinating. I remember going to a sale at Sotheby's, I think, and seeing a friend who was a dealer associated with us buy a picture, very dirty, and I asked him after the sale why he bought it. And he said, “Because it's a Holbein,” and I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Yes, it is,” and he showed me a frieze at the top of the portrait, which I did notice when he pointed it out to me was the same as an engraving by Holbein. And he took me back to his rooms in a hotel and started to clean it, and indeed it was a Holbein which had been over-painted.
You mean the gallery wasn't aware of this/?
© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help