Correspondence, notes, expense lists, and invoices for objects obtained by Gen. Munthe and shipped to Gertrude Bass Warner in Eugene [010]

Item

Title

Correspondence, notes, expense lists, and invoices for objects obtained by Gen. Munthe and shipped to Gertrude Bass Warner in Eugene [010]

Author

Munthe, Johan Wilhelm Normann

Recipient

Warner, Gertrude Bass, 1863-1951

Date

1929-06-29

Identifier

UA022_b005_f006_029_032

Description

Correspondence between Gertrude Bass Warner and General Normann Munthe

Transcript:
Gen Munthe
June 29, 1929.

My dear Friend:
It has taken me all this time since I was last in Los Angeles to make up up my mind to write you what I am about to say. The attendants at the museum at Los Angeles are evidently very antagonistic about the public getting any information about the collection. I had great difficulty in getting them to acknowledge that there was any further collection, besides what is in the up-stairs room. It was only after I had told them that I had been there and had seen the down-stairs collection that they admitted that the second half of your collection had been exhibited. Then they told me when it was taken down it was placed in an inside room for a while until that room was needed for something else, and the it was taken away. Upon being pressed as to where it was, they presumed that Mr. Furman had it at his place. Then I took my catalogue and compared Mr. Furman’s decsriptions with that in the printed catalogue. I find that in a number of instances that the statements in the catalogue are contradicted in the notices placed beside each picture. This contradiction of statement was not discovered by me. From Los Angeles I went to Chicago and my mother told me about it. That sort of thing makes Mr. Furman a very poor medium through which to dispose of your collection; added to which, I do not believe that he has had any opportunity to make a scholarly study of Chinese Painting or to make himself an authority. It seemed to me that he was trying to “show off” and we all know that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” When he began to question the authenticity of the paintings, or the authernticity of the catalogue he was doing something which would, in my opinion, undermine the value, authenticity and desirability of the collection—a thing he had no right to do, in my opinion.

Because I thought that this would disturb you, and because I could not see what you could do at that distance to protect yourself, I have waited all this time before telling you—but I have to the conclusion that I have no right to keep it from you. I am sending you the catalogue with the annotations that I made in it.

The truth is that God’s Creation is perfect and is the manifestation of perfect honesty and there is no dishonesty in man, his highest creation. There is but the one Mind, perfect and eternal, expressing perfect honesty, and this fact held to will bring harmonous [sic] results which neither time or distance can dispel.

End of transcript.
Transcribed by Tom Fischer.

Source

Gertrude Bass Warner Papers, 1879-1954

Repository

University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives

Institution

University of Oregon

Type

Text

Format

application/pdf

Rights

Rights Reserved - Free Access

Rights Holder

University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives

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