Evening star., 1941-03-18
Text of Roosevelt Address
President Accepts National Gallery
Of Art on Behalf of Nation

The text of President Roose-
Velt'S address last night at cere-
monies dedicating the new Ma
tionai Gallery of Art follows:
1t is with a very real sense of
satisfaction that I accept for
the people of the United States
and on their behalf this National
Gallery and the collections it
contains. The giver of the build
ing has matched the richness of
his gift with the modesty of his
spirit, stipulating that the gallery
shall be known not by his name
but by the Nations. And those
other collectors of paintings and
of sculpture who have already
Joined, or whose purpose to join
their works of art to Mr.. Melons
Mr., KresS and Mr.. Widener-
have felt the same desire to
establish, not a memorial to
themselves, but a monument to
the art they love and the country
to which they belong. To these
collections we now gratefully add
the gift from Miss Ellen Bullard
and three anonymous donors,
which marks the beginning of
the gallery's collection of prints;
and also the loan collection of
early American paintings from
Mr Chester Dale.
There have been, in the past,
many gifts of great paintings
and of famous works of art to
thes American people. Most of
the wealthy men of the last GEN.
tury who bought, for their own
satisfaction, the masterpieces of
European collections, ended by
presenting their purchases to
their cities or their towns. Great
works of art have a way of
breaking out of private owner
ship into public use. They belong
so obviously to all who love them
they are so clearly the property
not of their single owners but OF
all men everywhere-that the
private rooms and houses where
they are hung become in time
too narrow for their presence.
The true collectors are the COL
lectorS who understand this
the collectors of great paintings
who feel that they can never
truly own, but only gather and
preserve for all who love them,
the treasures they have found.
New Relationship Between
People and Arts Tradition.
But though there have been
many public gifts of art in the
past, the gift of this National
Gallery, dedicated to the entire
Nation and containing con-
siderable part of the most i'm
portant work brought to this
country from the continent of
Europe, has necessarily a new
significance. 1t signifies a rela-
tlon-a new relation here made
visible in paint and in stone
between the whole people of this
country, and the old inherited
tradition of the arts. And we
shall remember that these halls
of beauty, the creation of a great
American architect, combine the
claSsicism of the past with the
convenience of today.
In accepting this building and
the paintings it contains, the
people of the United States ac-
cept a part in that inheritance
for themselves. They accept it
for themselves not because this
gallery is given to them-though
they are thankful for the gift.
They accept it for themselves
because, in the past few years,
they have come to understand
that the inheritance is theirs and
that, like other inheritors of
other things of value, they have a
duty toward it.
There was a time when the
people of this country would not
have thought that the Inherit
ance of art belonged to them or
that they had responsibilities to
guard it. A few generations ago,
the people of this country were
taught by their writers and by
their critics and by their teach
ers to believe that art was some
thing foreign to America and to
themselves something imported
from another continent and from
an age which was not theirs
something they had no part in,
save to go to see it in a guarded
room on holidays or Sundays.
Learn That Art Is Act of
Making, Not of Owning.
But recently, within the last
few years, they have discovered
that they have a part. They have
seen in their own towns, in their
own villages, in schoolhouses, in
post offices, in the back rooms of
shops and stores, pictures painted