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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Chicago.

Q:

What was the occasion for that?

Lasker:

Well, the University of Chicago had very graciously named a chair in honor of my husband, and I knew that they had a three hundred million dollar fund-raising drive, and I said I was not going to give any cash to them, because they hadn't been very -- they had gotten a lot of money from my husband, in my opinion, and had used it poorly, but I thought that the people who had been so nice as to think of naming a chair in his honor should receive something, and so I gave them a Rothko, which they could sell or not as they pleased.

Q:

Which is very valuable and didn't have any strings.

Lasker:

Yes, they could keep it or sell it.

Q:

Didn't have any strings attached.

Lasker:

And worth a hundred and eighty thousand dollars. So they could get rid of it if they wanted.

Q:

Your tax on the French Impressionists must have been pretty high?

Lasker:

Immense. Immense. But I was able to --

Q:

Twenty-five percent?

Lasker:

Fifty.

Q:

Fifty percent?

Lasker:

Yes, but you can take some deduction by giving money, you





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