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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Q:

Did this emanate from the President himself...

Lasker:

I think it emanated from the President and from the people who were active around the President, who were his main supporters, most of whom were really quite young.

The next day there was a party given by Phil Stern in his beautiful house in Alexandria, and after that I went to a cocktail party at the Department of Labor, where I met Arthur Goldberg for the first time. I looked around at the huge walls of his office and of the corridor, and I said, “You really ought to have some modern pictures here.” Although he had just laid eyes on me he said, “That's just what I need. I'd like to get some. Can you help me?” and I said, “Well, I'll try. What would you like?” He said, “Well, what about R,” and I said, “Well, the Museum of Modern Art owns some. Maybe I can borrow some for you.” So, this led us into a negotiation between the Museum of modern Art and Mrs. Goldberg. R was extremely difficult, and I don't recall whether any finally got loaned to him or not, because I think they probably asked him whether he'd like to have them loaned to the Labor Department and he may have objected, as he's very particular about where his pictures are loaned even if a museum or individual owns them already. However, this shows the freshness of the people who were in his cabinet, because never in the history of mankind did any cabinet officer want a creative painter, whose work was still much disputed, in his office, and certainly never did any Secretary of Labor ever think about borrowing any art from a museum for his





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