Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-09-26

Five million dollars for s collection
of paintings, the greatest sum ever
paid at any one time for an art trans
fer. may mean that the world famous
,Kann collection is coming to the Uni
ted States.
It has been sold in Paris by the
heirs of NJ Kann, the plutocrat mine
owner. who made his fortune in South
Africh. NOminaIIy, the Duveen Broth
ers, most noted firm of London art
agents, were the purchasers, but as
1t is hardly credible that they would
or could invest a sum of this kind, art
lovers have been searching for the
real buyer of the treasure trove of
beauty.
Duveen Brothers have done all the
buying of paintings for J. Plerpont
Morgan, and this, coupled with the
fact that the American multi-million-
aire has lately had conferences with
the firm. leads to the theory that Nor
gan has a hand The great financial
operator does not deny that he has
long wanted to add many of the Kann
treasures to his already superb cOllec-
ton.
The Kann collection is not one of
the oldest in the world, for the money
that made it possible has only been
amassed within the last generation.
Rudolphe Kann first began to be
heard of about the time that British
exploitation was making fabulous for
tunes for Rhodes, De Beers, Barnato
and others of that group.
Kann was a big and daring investor,
and his returns were in proportion.
Just as soon as he found millions at
his command, he developed the idea of
having an art gallery which should
yield nothing in value to that owned
BY the Baron de Rothschild.
Assisted in his work by DR.. Bode, di-
rector of the Royal Museum of Berlin,
he began to make his selections. He
did not seek for numbers, quality was
his standard, and price was never
taken into account, so that the pur-
chase be choice. Museums and private
connoisseurs soon found that in the
mine owner they had to deal with a
rival who simply would not be down.
ed when it came to a question of get
ting what paintings he wanted.
After his collection had increased to
a size to warrant it, Mr.. Kann con-
structed in Paris a gallery, with the
lights so arranged that all his pictures
we're displayed to their best advant-
age. The walls were kept in strictest
simplicity so that nothing could de
tract from the brilliancy of the match
less canvassers he was gradually get
tag together.
Unlike many newly made Croesuses,
Mr.. Kann was not imposed upon. He
trusted absolutely to Dr. Bode, who is
said to be the best judge of old mas
tiers in the world. A hundred alleged
old masters were turned down by the
shrewd German, and in the entire col
lection is not a single painting whose
authenticity can be questioned.
Some two hundred paintings gradu-
ally collected in the stately mansion
on the Avenue de lena, most of them
having been secured only after spirit
ed contests with the representatives
of the Louvre, and the art galleries of
New York, London and Berlin. Sever
al times J. P Morgan was pitted
against Kann in the scramble for some
noted canvas, but the European de
clined to let the Western millionaire
get the better of him.
The privilege Of visiting the Kann
collections was one sought by nearly
every art lover who visited Paris, for
some of the famous Rembrandts were
known to be there, and the student
who wished thoroughly to know the
Dutch master must needs seek an eX-
tension of the hospitality of NJ. Kann.
This was not difficult to obtain, for
the master of these priceless can
vases loved nothing better than TO
hear them praised. In showing the
collection he had one invariable sys-
TEN. First he displayed the room de-
voted to the early Flemish and Dutch
school and Italian school
A beautiful stained glass window of