Mr. Benson only a few days earlier announced that he
had sold his own collection also for a very large sum indeed, presumably for dispersal. This was a well-known collection because the owner was a generous lender to exhibitions, and it was a particularly scholarly one, formed to illustrate as perfectly as could be the various Italian schools. One asks amid one's wonders and regrets, where does all the money come from, and will it take away from us the splendid possessions of this country's collectors ? The answer is for the most part of no comfort to British lovers of art, and we have only the comparatively sordid consolation to be found in thanking the collectors who made a provision that enables us to pay a fraction of our War-debts to the United States from capital invested in this form. * *
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