New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-05-15
$50 Paintings, on View in
the Macbeth Galleries.
May Have Been Ruined
by Heat and Water
firemen Seek to
Save Artists Work
Flames Start i'm Offices of
Alphen, Inc, Spreading
to Three Other Floors

fa'ntings valued at nearly $1,000 900
were imperiled and may have been
destroyed last night by fire which
started on the third floor Of $50 Fifth
Avenue, the ground floor of which is
occupied by the Macbeth art galleries.
Smoke and flames were pouring
from the third floor of the building,
occupied by Alphen, Inc, when Patrol
man Donaldson, Of the West Thirtieth
Street police station, discovered the
fire.
The Macbeth galleries are on the
fourth and fifth floors and the fremen
did their utmost to prevent the spread
Of the flames to the valuable pictures
The flames spread to the second floor.
also occupied by Alphen, Inc, most Of
the firemen being concentrated on the
attack from above
They succeeded in stemming the ad-
vance Of the fire, although here and
there the flames did break through the
wall on the fourth floor.
Robert Macbeth. proprietor Of the
galleries, said that he could not tell
until to-day what the damage to the
paintings might be.
Works From Many Museums
An exhibition is beirg given at the
galleries. Paintings by F. C. Frieseke
Hayley Lever and Malcolm PARCEL are
on view, and the work of many Amer
lean artists have been brought from
many museums in other cities for the
exhibition. There are about hundred
and fifty paintings.
When the firemen smashed their way
into the building and attac cked the fire
at close range they pulled the pictures
from the walls and piled them in the
center Of the room, that they might
have free play against the flames,
which were beginning to break through
the walls.
Unless embers lodged on some of the
canvases before the men of the fire
patrol got their tarpaulins spread it
is believed that none of the pictures
was burned. Water sceped in upon the
pile here and there, however, where
overlapping tarpaulins sagged, and Mr..
Macbeth said that a careful examina-
tion would be necessary of each pic
turc to ascertain whether damage was
suffered from heat.
Oil paintings, he pointed out, run
and smear at high temperatures, and
he feared that many of the paintings
hastily thrown together might have
suffered from this cause.
Reserves Hold Back Crowds
The fire was a smoky one, quantities
Of wooden goods being stored in the
lofts occupied by A!phen, Inc, firm
which deals in apparel.
The fire was almost across the street
from the Union League Club and only
two blocks below Forty second Street.
watch the firemen work and the re-
serves from several police stations
were required to hold them III check.
Traffic on Fifth Avenue. Thirty
ninth Street and Fortieth Street was
held up for an hour
Appraised at Sl,0O0,00O.
Mr.. Macbeth arrived at the galleries
shortly before the fire was put out.
He said the value of the collection
could not be placed at less than
s75O, 900, and that 100000 was more
correct appraisal. The larger number
and most valuable of the collection, he
said, were ON the fourth floor, where
the heat was most intense and the
smoke densest.
One of the paintings, with the glass
broken away and in the pile on the
center of the floor, was portrait of a
young girl by Malcolm PARCEL, sold a
week ago to f. l.. Henry, Seattle
collector. for $4,000. and which was
to have been delivered this week, at
the close of the exhibition. Others in
the pile were "Adirondacks Rocky
Edge" painted by A. H. Wyant, who
died in 1880, and paintings by Charles
H. David and ]. H. Twachtman, worth
more than $4,000 each. None of the
paintings, according to Mr.. Macbeth,
was worth less than $4,000.
The damage to Alphen, Inc, in
property lost, was estimated at $4,000
The Mirror Candy Company and the
Shaw Jewelry Company, occupying the
ground floor, suffered water damage of
probably several thousands of dollars
each.