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Royall Tyler to Robert Woods Bliss, April 6, 1937

Budapest 6th April 1937.

Dear Robert,

Our friend V. has just been to Switzerland, where he has seen one Fiedler, whom he thinks able to deliver the goods. I have just had a letter from V., in which he suggests as a price for the round marble relief with a standing Emperor,BZ.1937.23. $120.000, and for the relief with the MadonnaBZ.1938.62. $60.000. He also speaks of a relief with two stags,Stags and vase relief, probably marble. See Gerd-H. Zuchold, Der “Klosterhof” des Prinzen Karl von Preussen im Park von Schloss Glienicke in Berlin (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1993), 1:pl. 122 and 2:148, no. 130. resembling the Ravenna reliefs, for which he mentions $30.000. I have seen no photographs of the stags relief, and gather that he has not sent one to you either.

For the two ivory reliefs in Dresden and Hannover,See letters of April 6, 1937; April 9, 1937 [2]; June 3, 1937; July 25, 1937; August 18, 1937; August 21, 1937; September 4, 1937; September 11, 1937; December 13, 1937 [3]; and December 20, 1937. $70.000 for the two. For the lion silk in Deutz,Lion Silk, Byzantine, late tenth–early eleventh century, Saint Heribert Diocesan Museum, Cologne-Deutz. The twelfth-century shrine of Saint Heribert, archbishop of Cologne (d. 1021), at Saint Heribert, Cologne-Deutz, has an imperial Byzantine lion silk with an inscription suggesting a date of ca. 976–1025 for the textile. See Michael Brandt and Arne Eggebrecht, Bernward von Hildesheim und das Zeitalter der Ottonen, vol. 2 (Hildesheim, 1993): no. II-19. $25.000. He also mentions, $300.000 for one of the archaic reliefs.These reliefs have not been identified. We have seen no reproductions of these reliefs, but V. is trying to get photographs, which will be sent to you as soon as they are available.

I have told V. that I am handing on these prices to you, but that they all seem to me very high. He, of course, only gives them as indications. I hope you have had a photograph of the Deutz lion silk. It is a magnificent piece, and the price of $25.000 is perhaps not excessive for it. The other prices named do seem to me stiff. You may perhaps prefer to wait and see photographs of the archaic figures before you make up you mind what you wish to try for, and then make an all-in offer. As I understand it, this might be done for all the objects concerned except the marble reliefs belonging to Prince L.,Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia. which would have to be negociated for separately. The prices indicated for these latter seem to me particularly exorbitant, and perhaps, unless they appeal to you very much, it might not be a bad thing if you would tell me at once to tell V. that you are not interested at anything like the figures suggested.

Yrs

R. T.

 
Associated Places: Budapest (Hungary)
Associated Artworks: BZ.1937.23; BZ.1938.62