Herr Hitler's acquisition of Vermeer's well-known picture, " The Artist
in the Studio " is interesting on financial as well as artistic grounds. The picture was the property of the Czernin family and hung in Vienna. As to its value, I read that " its price was estimated at between k15o,000 and £200,000," though how any figure is to be arrived at in the case of an owner hitherto unwilling to sell is not clear. If Herr Hitler has secured the picture for the German nation no difficulty about payment should arise, for it is no longer a question, as it would have been before the Anschluss, of finding foreign exchange for it. On the assumption that the purchase was a personal affair some surprise has been expressed that Herr Hitler, who is reputed to live austerely on a modest income, could have afforded it. But, in fact, what Herr Hitler's official allowances are is not known, nor (apparently) is the price he paid for the picture. His own royalties from Mein Kampf must have amounted by this time to at least kroo,000, and the sale of the volume continues to bring in a steady revenue. Coincidences have a certain interest. In the course of a casual conversation on Poland in which I took part at a London club at lunch-time on Monday I happened to mention the far-reaching claims put forward by Roman Dmowski, the Polish delegate, at the Peace Conference. " Ah yes, what's happened to Dmowski ? " someone asked. " I don't know," I said, not having heard of him, or mentioned him, for years, " I think he's dead." On leaving the club an hour • or so later I bought an evening paper, and read : " Dr. Roman Dmowski, Polish politician and writer, died today, aged 742! On the same occasion someone mentioned, what I had never heard before, that Matthew Arnold acquiied his famous " sweetness and light " from Swift. A couple of hours later, in Sir Philip Hartog's pamphlet on Kultur, I read " Sweet- ness and Light' is a phrase quoted by Arnold from- Swift."
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