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ever goes to a vault in a bank and pays $100,000 for a picture, and I'm an old dealer and I know.” So, after the next three days I came back and I inquired for the picture and it was sold, to Wildenstein's. Albert was wild. So, within 10 days he had to pay $135,000. In other words, he had to pay a $35,000 premium because I had gone to visit Truman about health insurance. He was furious.

However, Wildenstein's last spring offered me $750,000 cash for this picture! Now, I'm not selling, but that's what they offered. So, all the prices that my husband made and all the terrible things he did for other collectors only stimulated higher and higher prices.

Did he have some shrewd idea that this would happen in the art field?

No, he really didn't buy as an investor at all. He thought that the pictures were attractive, made the house interesting, and it amused him to hear other collectors and dealers talk, and people thought the pictures were treasures or many times they thought the Picassos and Matisses were terrible. We would have social friends who would say that I was misleading him by making him buy these terrible things, but he liked them and they entertained him. He didn't think about it as a great investment at all; he just thought it was a pleasant