The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-08-25
In New York
Rv PAUL HARRISON

New York-Life seems to De just an overnight affair when you get to visiting around among the ancient sculptures and suits or ar. nor and imperturbable mummies of the Metropolitan Museum or Art. And yet even these relics are not actually deathless.
 Priceless paintings, in the course of many centuries, may crack and become dulled. Speck by speck, sculptures will orumble and lose their detail. Metal will corrode in our climate, especially in city air, which is full of noxious gases. And bronzes are vulnerable to disease.
 Sure enough. A figure of a. cat brought from an old Egyptian tomb gave "bronze disease" to oth- CT objects in the wing of the mus cum, and some of them began to develop dusty green spots which in time would have become holes. A Colorado scientist named pr Collin Fink was sent for, and he patched up the blotches by an electrolytic process. He also locked the offending cat in an hermeti- cally sealed glass cage.
 Buses are Problem
 Vibration is another problem. Put a piece of costly jade or a bit of Chinese porcelain on a shelf, and in a month or so they may walk right off the edge and dash themselves on the bottom of the case. Fifth avenue buses. which pass in front, are constantly jar ring the building. Symphony con- certs held in the museum auditor ium are worse than buses; the bass fiddles and kettle drums jig gle things until they have to be held in place with modelling wax.
 This is the height of the tourist season, and some visitors who get lost among the miles of statues. period furniture, tapetries. cera- mics and such declare irritably that they thought this was an "art" museum and that what they want to see are paintings.
 They see paintings, all right, but usually show a livelier interest in the copyists who work In the gal leries. Certain reliable artists are authorized to set up their easels and reproduce the old masters as best they can. And they do very we'll indeed.
 Make More Than Masters
 A few years ago a speedy copy ist might make more money in d week than Rembrandt, Velasquez, Reynolds and the rest used to earn in a month. Rembrandt's best work, the Might Watch, brought him only about $640.
 Excellent copies of famous paintings may sell for as little as $50 today, against $200 or more in 1929, explained a painter named Isaac Goldat, who has been work ing in the museum IS years. He isn't the dean of the copyists, how ever; Macmillan Nogida started work there 38 years ago, when the museum had only one wing. The elder J. P. Morgan once watched Nogida yielding his brushes and exclaimed: My boy, you're won- derful! You ought to do originals" Nogida didn't sell him anything. though.
 Almost as seasoned a veteran is Miss Charlotte Knapp, a meticu- lous craftswoman who turns out an amazing number of paintings. She's white-haired, but shy about telling her age.
 Armor Gets Crowds
 The hall of arms. and armor is a favorite of tourists, many of whom ask questions about the strength of medieval knights. Could a man in armor get on his horse unaided? ? He could, declare the curators. Were the knights all huskies like Max Baer and Jack Dempsey? Nope, say the museum people; the knight was somewhat smaller in stature than the average American businessman.
 There's great deal of almost priceless armor in this country. J.. F. Morgan, Jry Archer Huntington and Clarence Mackay have donat- ed many pieces to the Metropoli- tan, and Mackay still has the worlds finest private collection. Armor collectors all have one great ambitiQn-to find the outfit worn by Joan of Arc. Most of them be- lieve 1t eventually will turn up in some attic in Burgundy or Eng land, and if 1t does the experts will recognize it immediately. Joan's armor was white, and bore traces of her three injuries in battle. There was a hole at one shoulder, another in a thigh plate, and a dent in the helmet. Anybody who finds 1t can write his own ticket.