Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius (2011), highlights a charming episode in modern history.
The Germans are outside Paris. It is spring, 1918. John Maynard Keynes has the unofficial job of mediating American loans to the British. He became aware of an upcoming Paris event, an art auction, via his friend Roger Fry.
"Recognizing a chance to save a piece of the civilization he loved" Keynes secured an invitation to a conference in Paris and, using a pseudonym, planned major purchases for the cultural heritage of his country. Most of the funding for this adventure, Keynes secured by persuading the wartime government that they needed some bargaining chips against unknown contingencies.
Keynes sent the painter Duncan Grant --his former and Vanessa Bell's current, --lover, a triumphant telegram: "Money secured for pictures."
At the risk of being hit by German bombs, Keynes and the Director of the National Gallery, Charles Holmes, both in disguise, attend an auction at the Galerie Roland. The items in question were part of a enormous trove of modern art accumulated by a modern artist, who bought his own friends' works. Edgar Degas's own art collection was for sale.
Nasar continues the story:
Nasar continues the story:
.... [At the conclusion of this secret visit, he wrote in a letter, ] "I bought myself four pictures and the nation upwards of twenty."
In fact he came home with one of Cezanne's still lifes of apples and two Delacroix, while Sir Charles Holmes returned to the National Gallery with twenty-seven drawings and paintings, including a Gauguin still life and Manet's Woman with a Cat. Prices had slumped under the threat of German occupation, and Keynes was especially pleased that Holmes had only had to use half of his budget. Of his return from France Vanessa Bell wrote to Roger Fry that "Maynard came back suddenly and unexpectedly late last night, having been dropped at the bottom of the lane.... and said he left a Cezanne by the roadside! Duncan rushed off to get it.
Sylvia Nasar was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1998, for A Beautiful Mind.
In fact he came home with one of Cezanne's still lifes of apples and two Delacroix, while Sir Charles Holmes returned to the National Gallery with twenty-seven drawings and paintings, including a Gauguin still life and Manet's Woman with a Cat. Prices had slumped under the threat of German occupation, and Keynes was especially pleased that Holmes had only had to use half of his budget. Of his return from France Vanessa Bell wrote to Roger Fry that "Maynard came back suddenly and unexpectedly late last night, having been dropped at the bottom of the lane.... and said he left a Cezanne by the roadside! Duncan rushed off to get it.
Sylvia Nasar was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1998, for A Beautiful Mind.
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