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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926)",
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    "chunk_id": "1926:1924 h a b art sales:e9e8b2a83153",
    "title": "(1924). (H. A. B.) ART SALES",
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    "verified_text": "the public and private art sales in great britain from to11 form in the main a sad record of the depletion of national treasures, and show an extraordinary revi- sion in values. many of the finest works of art formerly in britain have gone to america, and the exodus is bound to con- tinue. there are still collectors of taste and judgment in the country, but transatlantic competition makes it impossible for most of them to purchase early works of the highest importance. but this inability to buy old masters should induce collectors of limited means to patronise the art of modern men, and keep an eye particularly on the work of promising youngsters. again and again in the past has this foresight been richly rewarded. the sargent sale in 1925 may be mentioned, although the prices paid were the result of sentiment rather than artistic appreciation. works which he himself may have regarded mercly as studio “ property’ fetched extravagant sums: for example, a copy by him of “ prince batasar carlos” by velas- quez, measuring 213 in. by 173 in. realised £6,300, a small water- colour made £4,830, an oil painting of “san vigilio”’ £7,350, and the total for 163 lots on the first day reached £145,984. rembrandt etchings also grow in favour. in 10924 the rudge collection, which was unknown to the experts, established a new maximum in realising £34,000, and the £3,780 given for a first state of ‘‘ dr. arnoldus tholinx ” broke all records for any etch- ing or engraving, the nearest to that figure being the £3,045 paid two years earlier for valentine green’s mezzotint translation of “the ladies waldegrave”’ by reynolds. as already said, many famous pictures have passed from britain to america in the period under review, but the greatest excitement was caused by the private sale of the duke of west- minster’s pictures, ‘‘ the blue boy,” by gainsborough, and *“ mrs. siddons as the tragic muse,” by reynolds, for £200,000 in r92t. previously, it will be recalled, the reynolds was with- drawn at christie’s at £52,500 and it was said that £150,000 had been refused for “the blue boy” which, as farington records, was purchased by john hoppner fcr 65 guineas in 1803, after having been sold for 35 guineas in 1796. the highest auction price for a gainsborough was the £20,160 realised for ‘‘ the market cart ” in 1913, while the reynolds maximum stands at £15,520 in ro1g for the portrait of ‘‘ mrs. freeman.”’ that year was one of the most memorable in the annals of art sales. for the first time in history each of 100 pictures realised not less than 1,400 guineas in british auction rooms. the hamilton palace sale on nov. 6 1919 fetched £168,957, the highest sum ever obtained in one day at christie’s, beating the £150,000 record for a two-davs dispersal, amassed earlier in the year by the drummond collection. three other records were made in that sale: the £6,500 for turner’s drawing of ‘ ziirich,” a similar sum for guardi’s “ fete on the grand canal,” which cost sir george drummond £800, and £26,775 fora portrait of ‘‘ joseph coymans ” by franz hals which, however, was exceeded by the £27,400 paid in america for the same artist’s “ old lady ” that figured in the yerkes collection. | notable sales-—nor were these the only records for 1919. in the hamilton palace sale the £54,600 paid for romney’s group of “ ‘the beckford children ” was the highest price given in the. public market for any picture. the artist received {105 for the painting of the two girls. a picture of ‘ st. eustace ” ascribed to carpaccio brought £33,600 in the vernon-wentworth sale, “the spendthrift ” by jan steen, £17,010, the former record was the £3,412 1os. for “‘ the sick lady ” in roro, and ruys- dael’s “‘ landscape,” £12,600. james ward’s portrait of “ miss georgiana musgrave ” made £7,140 against £1,680 in 1905, which was then the maximum for this artist’s works. the remarkable events of 1919 may be compared with the auction doings in 1913, when, by the middle of june, the turnover at christie’s alone reached more than £1,000,0c00. romney’s “ anne, lady de la pole ” fetched £41,370; gainsborough’s ‘‘ market cart ” art treasures £20,160, as against £4,750 ros. in 1894; hobbema’s “ woody landscape ” £15,750 as against £3,460 in 1890; a hals “ por- trait of a gentleman ” £9,000 as against a price of £5 5s. witha still-life subject into the bargain in 1884. the two abundant years before the world war had filled the warehouses of the dealers with stock, and that fact, combined with financial depression, brought about the result that when on friday, july 24 1914, christie’s season ended, there were few notable things to report. only 38 pictures, compared with 85 in 1913, realised 1,400 guineas or over. twoof these works were “a man with a red cap,” attributed to titian, which made £13,650 and peter de hooch’s “ interior with figures,” which was sold for £8,610 at robinson and fisher’s, four days before war was declared. the war period.—the years between that date and ro19 were memorable for the sales conducted free of charge by messrs. christie on behalf of the red cross fund. the great success of these charitable sales helped to restore confidence in the art markets, which also were affected by the duveen purchase of portions of the pierpont morgan collections costing £1,000,000, one of the tragedies of the war was the loss of sir hugh lane in the ‘ lusitania.” in 1916 christie’s celebrated the r5oth anniversary of the firm’s existence. raeburn’s art was long in winning favour in the sale-room. in 1877, 49 of his pictures fetched only £6,000. since then, how- ever, very high prices have been realised for his portraits; for example, ‘“‘ mrs. robertson williamson” brought £23,415 (1911) and ‘* the mcnab ” £25,410 (1917). these two works remained in england. gainsborough’s charming sketch of his daughters, which fetched £3,045 (1923), went to the national gallery, london, and hoppner’s fine “ portrait of william pitt” was purchased for a british peer at £7,350. it came from the baroness burdett-coutts’ collection (1922), as did raeburn’s ‘ portrait of sir walter scott,” which made {£9,660 and went to america. in the following year the brownlow van dyck “ portrait of anton triest ” fetched £29,400. mention should be made of the futile sale of sir john robinson’s pictures on july 7 1923. the nominal total for the 114 works by old masters was {205,741 108, but in most cases the excessive reserves were not reached, so that in no previous sale in england had such a large percen- tage of lots been bought in, in spite of the fact that most of those actually sold showed a profit, and that many of the withdrawn pictures were knocked down at larger prices than those originally given for them by sir john. in the autumn of 1923 it became known that tro of the finest pictures in lord glenconner’s col- lection of british master-pieces had been acquired by messrs. knoedler, and shipped to the united states. reference has been made solely to the disposal of pictgires, but numerous other works of art have been sold privately and in the open market at prices not less sensational than those obtained for paintings. | on the continent of europe, too, competition has been acute, with the result that prices were abnormally high in 1g11, 1912 and 1913, as they were in great britain. in paris in 1911, the maurice kann collection, consisting of 85 lots, realised £108,850, to which must be added the tax of 10% paid then by purchasers. with a few exceptions the profits were enormous. so, too, with the collection of his brother rodolphe kann, which cost him about {200,000 and fetched about £1,200,c00. rembranidts, which were bought by him for £1,600 and £2,000, brought £20,- ooo to £30,000 and a vermeer of delft, for which he gave £48, sold for £2,000. paris and new york sales——in 1912 there were five great paris sales, the roussel, dollfus, carcano, doucet and rouart, which together realised over £{1,250,000. a few individual prices may be given. in the doucet sale a pastel portrait of “ duval de l'epinoy ” by quentin de la tour made £26,400, which was eight times the previous maximum for a pastel; john russell's “ mrs. elizabeth curie ”’ sold in paris for £3,200; hf. regnault’s “ sa- lome,” £19,000; “ the countess of wilton ” by sir thomas law- rence, £19,104; ‘‘ les danscuses 4 la barre ” by degas, £10,400 (the artist sold it for £20); chardin’s “ les bulles de savon,”’ 235 £12,000, and in the following year (1913), rembrandt’s “ bath- sheba,”’ £44,000. mantegna’s ‘‘ madonna and child ” in the weber sale, berlin (1912), fetched £31,000 against {4,000 paid for it in 1902. in amsterdam 32 rembrandt drawings from the j. p. heseltine collection totalled over £25,000, the highest individual price being £2,508 paid for “ the farm.”’ in the same city (nov. 1925) the castiglione collection realised £150,000. of that sum, a signed and dated (1635) rembrandt ‘ portrait of a syndic of amsterdam ” brought £17,833, nicholas froment’s ‘‘ resurrec- tion of lazarus,” £12,833 and correggio’s “ mystic marriage of saint catharine,” £10,666. the two greatest sales ever held in america were the yerkes in 1910, which, at £400,000, established a record in new york, and the william salomon in 1923 which realised £258,569 for 764 lots. before the latter sale took place, sir joseph duveen purchased privately 15 of the more important pictures at an esti- mated cost of £200,000. in the yerkes sale, franz hals’ “ por- trait of a woman ” fetched £27,400, troyon’s “ going to the market,” £12,000 and turner’s “ rockets and blue lights,” £25,800. | it should be mentioned that the transference in 1925 of a por- tion of lord leverhulme’s collection from his hampstead resi- dence for sale in america caused some excitement, as that trans- action was thought to be the beginning of an attempt to make new york the centre of the world’s art sales instead of london. | (j. gr.) art treasures.—the flow of art treasures from the old to the new world is no novelty. from the days of colonisation onward americans have naturally desired to possess european heirlooms. nor has the drain been on europe alone. the mer- chantmen of the days of sailing ships bringing back to salem and other ports their cargoes of tea and spices inaugurated that im- portation of souvenirs from across the pacific which, continuing with increasing volume, has resulted in the great american collections of the art of the far east. i. the transfer from europe to america public interest in european art.—it has been, however, the importation of european art in recent years that has attracted widespread attention to the transfer of art treasures to america. there are various reasons for the growth of public interest 1n this transfer. in the first place, values are well known in european art. the relative merit or even the identity of chinese and japanese painters is in the main obscure to the uninitiated, but the mention of a picture by hlobbema or botticelli means some- thing to the merest novice. moreover, the european picture or other art object has commonly a recorded history, with frequently an ascending series of preceding sale prices to attest its steady appreciation; if not, it can be compared with a pedigreed object. secondly, in the case of european art the limit of the market supply is known more or less exactly. thus a picture by vermeer is considered as a certain fraction of the total work of vermeer which might come on the market. if it passes into the inalienable ownership of a public gallery the next vermeer to come on the market is by so much a larger fraction. thirdly, competition in collecting european art has become very keen. when the jarves collection came to america two generations ago it attracted less attention than a single picture of that collection might attract ” now. the solidity of art values has been made conspicuous by the economic and monetary crises of recent years, and, as a re- sult, the art collection has come to be looked upon as a form of investment. finally, art objects, however owned, are apt to be regarded as semi-public in nature, and their vicissitudes are therefore a matter of public interest. this is particularly true in the case of large collections. private collections.—of the large collections which have come to america since 1910 the most important is that of the late mr. j. picrpont morgan, most of which is now in the metrepolitan museum of art and the j. pierpont morgan library, new york. the objects brought in 1912 to the metropolitan museum came partly from the victoria and albert museum and other european 2 326 “museums, to which they had previously been lent. paintings which may be mentioned are the colonna raphael, the “ vir- gin and child with saints,” the “ portrait of a genoese lady and child” by van dyck; the ‘‘ holford landscape ” by hobbema; three panels by filippo lippi; three saints and donors, mentioned by vasari; portraits by la tour, reynolds, hoppner, etc. the fragonard room imported by mr. morgan subsequently found its way to the henry clay frick collection. the metro- politan museum is indebted to the morgans for the sculptures from the chateau de biron, many others from the hoentschel collection, and objects of applied arts of all kinds. it is particu- larly rich in ivories and possesses, in the swenigorodski collection of byzantine enamels, the cyprus treasure, the albanian treasure, and the collection of germanic—largely merovingian—antiqui- tics, assembled by baron and by queckenberg, ample evidence of mr. morgan’s wide interests and of his forehandedness in ac- quiring material of a sort not likely to appear often on the market. another collection which was brought from public exhibition in a european museum to america is the goloubew collection of persian and indian paintings. for some years prior to its pur- chase in 1914 by the museum of fine arts, boston, it had been exhibited in the musee des arts decoratifs, paris. the boston museum has since added persian miniatures and a collection of indian art rich in examples of painting, so that it is now able to illustrate to a degree unattained elsewhere the history of mahom- medan painting from the r2th century onward. the riggs collection of arms and armour came from paris also. but it had been formed by an american living there. in 1913, when it left paris to come to the metropolitan museum, it was unrivalled among private collections of armour; its addition to the metropolitan museum has been followed by further gifts from the same donor and sthers, until the museum’s collection of armour has become one of the most important. museums.—most of the collections that have come into the possession of american museums in recent years have not been transferred entire from europe but have been formed gradually, largely through the agency of dealers, by collectors in america. characteristic examples, to take a single museum, the mctro- politan museum of art, are the collections bearing the following names: altman, 1913 (paintings by fra angelico, botticelli, mantegna, diirer, vermeer and others, a much-discussed group of rembrandts, sculptures, furniture, an exceptional collection of chinese porcelains); jesup, 1915 (71 pictures, 24 of the british, 23 of the french school, the rest of miscellaneous schools); fletcher, 1917 (251 objects, including good gothic sculpture and david’s portrait of mlle. charlotte du val-d’ognes); vanderbilt, 1920 (paintings and furniture); dreicer, 1921 (largely paintings and sculpture); ballard, 1922 (rugs); barnard, 1925 (medieval sculpture, including the unfinished cloisters from st. michel-de- cuxa and extensive fragments from the cloisters of st. guilhem- le-desert); huntington, 1925 (188 objects, including paintings by vermeer, rembrandt, etc.). the background of every large american museum is a group of men who form collections that they eventually give to it. the size and number of such collec- tions are much more significant for the transfer of art objects to america than are the occasional, widely heralded, but commonly second-rate, european collections that are brought over entire to be sold in american auction rooms. fashions in american collecting —there have been fashions in american collecting, but so diverse are the interests of different communities and social groups that few considerable fields have been slighted. certainly, sienese painting has been greatly favoured, but that has not prevented collectors from acquiring pictures of the other italian schools. a nation that enjoyed nearly a century ago the bituminous painting of germany— particularly of the diisseldorf and munich schools—then furnished the chief foreign market for the murky and sentimental dutch of israels’ type, could hardly be free from the contempo- rary adulation of anything even remotely rembrandtesque. the rediscovery of the art of spain, which began with the obvious later masters and has gradually worked backward through the primitives to the middle ages, was beginning about 1925 to arouse art treasures great interest in america, americans have taken an active part in exploration and excavation, especially in egypt; as a result the collections of egyptian art that have recently been forming in the museums of boston, new york and chicago are surprising both in size and quality, the more so the better one knows the great collections at london, paris, berlin, turin and cairo. german art, except prints, has not emigrated extensively to america any more than it has to neighbouring european coun- tries. scandinavian art, apart from the works of a few modern painters, has stayed at home and so has in general the medieval and modern art of eastern europe except smaller portable ob- jects of the byzantine period. this is the more remarkable in view of the eager assemblage of objects from most parts of asia and the recent enthusiasm for the art of the african negroes and the american aborigines. in the case of modern art there is a wide discrepancy in the distribution of the work of various countries. french art is, of course, collected everywhere. but while the painters of spain find a good market in america, the modern painters of italy, despite their prominence in the venice exposi- tions and the flood of american tourists to italy, are little known in the united states, though some of their works have gone to south america. ii. character of the transfer the character of the transfer of art objects to america can be illustrated by a selection of representative examples, chosen mainly from those which have found their way into public collections and each standing for many of its kind. egyptian.—the boston museum has been steadily receiving a portion of the discoveries made by dr. reisner. in this way it has acquired a very rich collection of the art of the old king- dom. the sculpture from the pyramid of mycerinus includes an unrivalled series of portraits. the metropolitan museum, new york, on the other hand, has acquired more by purchase than it has from its own excavations in egypt. thus the tomb of perneb, from sakkara, though of secondary artistic importance, the most imposing monument that has come to any museum from egypt, was purchased on behalf of the museum from the egyptian govt. in 1913. another important purchase was that of a large part of the treasure of lahun, discovered by flinders petrie in r9r4. this jewellery was found in almost perfect condition in the tomb of the princess sat-hathor-iunut, probably the daughter of senusert if of the 12th dynasty. the same dynasty, which is the most important for our knowl- edge of the middle kingdom, is represented also by the metro- politan museum’s acquisition, in 1919, of the large sphinx of senusert itt. another of flinders petrie’s discoveries which has come to america is the sphinx of rameses ii found in the temple of ptah at memphis in 1912 and now in the university museum, phila- delphia. this brings us to the new empire, in the art of which the metropolitan museum has become particularly rich. a striking acquisition of the sculpture of this period was that of seven colossal seated statues of the lioness-headed goddess sekhmet in diorite. these came from the temple of mut at karnak, were taken to england about 1830, and had been in the possession of lord amherst before they were bought by the metropolitan museum in 1919. the same museum has an ex- tensive and growing collection of coptic art, particularly textiles; in 1910 it bought 116 stone fragments, including inscriptions, sculpture and architectural decoration. about three-quarters of these were sold by the egyptian govt. and came chiefly from the monastery of st. jeremias at sakkara, excavated by quibbell. classical—_the museum of fine arts, boston, acquired in 1914 a gold and ivory statuette of the minoan snake goddess. though the type is not unfamiliar, the materials and quality make the statuette unique. another important acquisition of the same museum was the head of a greek goddess from chios, which came to the museum from england in rgr10. this head is said to have been discovered in 1853. it was seen on chios by studniczka in 1887 and his mention of it in an article the follow- ing year led to its removal to england. there it was exhibited art treasures at the burlington fine arts clubin 1904. it is of parian marble and is regarded as praxitelean. from england, too, came the fragments of the largest known grave stele of the greek archaic period, since 1911 in the metropolitan museum. the total height is 13 ft. 52 inches. it is incomplete, and a head and hand from it are in berlin. the metropolitan museum has secured a number of fine bronzes, including a life-size head of agrippa, 1914; a statue of a boy 43 ft. high, probably of the first century b.c., 1914; a statuette of an athlete, 1921; and, most prized of all, a statuette of a horse dating about 470 b.c., 1923. the magnificent bronze statue of eros in the morgan library should be remembered in this connection. it was found at boscoreale. the late mr. morgan lent it for a time to the south kensington museum and then in 1¢to to the metropolitan museum, where it used to form the centre-piece in the: museum’s frescoed room from a villa at boscoreale. there is a steady flow of roman sculpture in stone 10 america, chiefly portrait heads, sarcophagi reliefs and architectural carvings. italian.—there has been more general interest in america in italian art than in any other. as a result, nearly all the older private, or originally private, collections (e.g., frick, gardner, ryerson, walters, widener) are well stocked with italian pictures. this makes the museum collections, except those of ilarvard and yale, seem proportionately meagre. the metro- politan museum secured at paris in 1914 a ceiling by pinturic- chio, which would not appear extraordinary in italy but has considerable illustrative value in america. it consists of 22 panels, in fresco now transferred to canvas, from the palazzo del magnifico at siena; these are now used for the ceiling of one of the museum rooms. a ceiling by ticpolo from the palazzo barbaro, venice, acquired by the museum in 1923, is used for another room. one of the most important pictures purchased by the metropolitan museum in recent years is the “‘ meditation on the passion ” by carpaccio, from the abdy sale in london, 1911. another important carpaccio is the ‘‘ knight in armour,”’ sold at christie’s in r9o1g and now in the kahn collection, new york. the landscape of the former picture shows points of analogy with the large landscape of ‘st. francis receiving the stig- mata,” by giovanni bellini, in the frick collection and it has been suggested that bellini might have finished the design for carpaccio’s picture. from the abdy sale came the “ three miracles of st. zenobius ” by botticelli, now in the metropolitan museum. they are part of a well-documented series of which others are in the national gallery, london, and the dresden gallery. of the half-dozen greatest names of the high renaissance america must, in the nature of the case, have a very limited representation. raphael’s portrait of giuliano de medici came from germany in 1925. various portraits by titian have come, including a well-known one from the giovanelli palace. tinto- retto too is variously represented in recent importations. a ‘‘ doge in prayer before the redeemer,” acquired by the metropolitan museum in 1910, is of interest because it was bought in 1852 by ruskin. more important as a picture is the ‘* miracle of loaves and fishes,” a large picture acquired in 1913 from an english collection. of correggio two pictures may be mentioned; a large painting of ‘‘ four saints,” bought by the metropolitan museum in 1912 and formerly in the ashburton collection, and a “‘ mystic marriage of st. catherine ’’ bought by the detroit museum at the castiglione sale in amsterdam, 1925. of the quatirocento painters fra angelico is a favourite among american collectors, possibly because he is somewhat like the sienese in spirit. the jewel-like little octagonal ‘‘ ma- donna and child with angels, saints and a donor” which was formerly in the aynard collection, lyons, and has been in the boston museum since 1914, overshadows the “‘ nativity ”? which came to the metropolitan museum in 1924. because of its large size, brilliance and fine preservation, the ‘‘ annunciation ” by fra angelico’s contemporary, masolino, in the goldman col- lection since 1916, demands notice. there is less jialian sculpture of good quality on the market than there is painting. most of it that comes to america gocs 237 into the private collections (e.g., mackay and widener). out- standing exceptions are the ‘‘ angel annunciate”’ by matteo civitale and the “ nativity’ by antonio rossellino, both in painted terracotta and acquired by the metropolitan museum in r9r1. the same museum secured in 1910 and 1921 fragments, formerly in ruskin’s possession, that are thought to be from giovanni pisano’s pulpit for the cathedral of pisa, two trumpet- ing angels and an angel with ox and lion. spanish.—the most remarkable work of spanish art which has been brought to america is the mural decoration of the apse of s. maria de mur, in catalonia. this came in 1921 and was purchased by the museum of fine arts, boston. as set up in a special room built for it with the intention of giving a setting like its original one, it transports the museum visitor effectively into the spanish middle ages. works attributed to el greco or to velasquez are to be found in most of the larger collections, but the greatest migration of spanish paintings to america has con- sisted of the works of contemporaries. the various exhibitions of zuloaga have tended to domesticate him in america, and sorolla is extensively represented, particularly by the decorations of the sorolla room opened in 1925 at the hispanic society of america. ‘this institution is for the united states the focus of interest in things spanish. french.—the enthusiasm at the end of the roth century for french painting has not been entirely sustained. the increasing interest in primitives has rather less to feed upon in france than in italy or spain. one of the private collections, the friedsam collection, has made a speciality of early french works. in this field the museums have mainly contented themselves with small portraits of the general style of corneille de lyon. examples were added to the boston museum in 1gig and 1924. two kinds of french sculpture have been eagerly sought by american collectors—gothic fragments and works of rodin and his follow- ers. of the former, good examples are the “ virgin and child ” of the amiens school, bought by the metropolitan museum in 1918; the 14th century great altarpiece from pau, bought by the boston museum in 1924; and the five very early gothic statues given to yale university (1925). these last are transi- tional and are sometimes described as late romanesque. of the romanesque proper, the series of capitals in the fogg museum at harvard university is an important acquisition. although private collectors, such as mr. pitcairn, are interested in medieval sculpture, america is considerably behind europe in this branch of collecting. of rodin and his school, nearly every american museum has something to show, and there seems to be no de- crease of interest, for the followers of rodin continue year after year to have successful new york exhibitions. dutch and flemish.—aal\\most none of the contemporary paint- ings of belgium and holland find an american market. on the other hand, the works of the 17th century and earlier are as popular here as elsewhere. a writer in 1921 was able to list eight examples of gerard david in america. others, for example the “ entombment,” lent to the art institute of chicago in 1913, can now be added to the list. bosch, patinir and the antwerp school of about 1525 are likewise well represented in recent importations. but it is primarily the great figure painters of the 17th century—rembrandt, hals, etc.—whose names are attached with varying plausibility to pictures arriving in the american market. british.—the traditions of the homeland are strong enough in the united states to give the portrait painters of great britain a special prestige. this extends even to painters, like holbein and van dyck, who are not british but have social position in great britain. thus, while the german school is not popular in america, a number of paintings by holbein have re- cently come into american collections. these include a portrait identified as “‘ jean de dinteville,” in the goldman collection; a miniature portrait of ‘‘ thomas cromwell,” in the morgan col- lection; and another portrait of ‘‘ thomas cromwell,” in the frick collection. before 1915, when it came into the frick collection, the last-named picture was at tyttenhanger park. mr. goldman’s picture, which is usually regarded as the finest 238 of the three, came from the collection of sir john ramsden, of bulstrode park, buckinghamshire. the greatest publicity has been given to the purchase for henry e. huntington of the ‘‘ blue boy,” by gainsborough, and ** mrs. siddons as the tragic muse,” by reynolds, pictures formerly belonging to the duke of westminster. but the recently published catalogue of paintings of the british school in mr. huntington’s collection shows 32 other pictures of almost equal importance. the taft collection at cincinnati has likewise been enriched at the expense of english country houses. in contrast, the american museums have not, in view of the great competi- tion, acquired many important works of the british school. restitution of art treasures —a\\though this article is chiefly concerned with the transfer of art treasures to america, it should not be forgotten that there have been, especially since the world war, important transfers elsewhere. among other restitutions . to belgium are the panels of the ghent altarpiece which have been returned from the kaiser friedrich museum. one hundred and eighty pictures, which had been removed from italy to austria between 1808 and 1866, were returned to italy, likewise as a result of the war. most of these had historic associations as decorations of the halls of the ducal palace, the offices of the old republic, the churches and the confraternities of venice. besides pictures restored to venice, nine magnificent raphael- esque tapestries were returned to the ducal palace at mantua. in general, however, germany and austria have not lost any considerable amount of their artistic treasures as a result of the war. the cession of alsace-lorraine meant of course the loss of works in those provinces, including one altarpiece very dear to the germans, the isenheim altarpiece by matthias griinewald at colmar. the financial crisis in these countries did not jead to extensive exportation of works of art. during the war, how- ever, one truly famous picture left germany, “ the legend of st. eligius,” by petrus christus, now in the lehman collection in new york. | binliography.—for the transfer of art objects, the current peri- odicals give fairly complete information. the bulletins which are published by practically all the american museums note briefly cur- rent accessions. the accounts in the newspapers are necessarily incomplete and untrustworthy. a few books such as venetian paintings in america, by bernhard berenson, and creek and roman sculpture in american collections, by george ij. chase, at gh ul. . sh,",
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