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Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Mary LaskerMary Lasker
Photo Gallery
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

Lasker:

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.

Q:

You spoke of going to English country houses, how did you gain entree? Were they in need of disposing their collections?

Lasker:

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.

Q:

You mean the gallery wasn't aware of this/?





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