THE FREER ART COLLECTIONS.
The Chancellor laid before the Board a letter from the President, urging the acceptance of the Freer collections, and inclosing a communication from Mr. Freer, dated December 15, 1905, reciting the terms and conditions of his offer as then made through him.
These letters are as follows:
Washington. December 19, 1905.
To the Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, and Member of the Board of Regents:
Sir: I herewith inclose a copy of a letter sent to me by Mr. Charles L. Freer offering to bequeath his art collections to the Smithsonian Institution or the United States Government together with $500,000 in money to construct a suitable building; or if it is deemed preferable, to make a present conveyance of the title to such Institution or the Government and a bequest of the sum of $500,000 for the building. The offer is made upon certain terms and conditions which, in my judgment, are proper and reasonable.
It is impossible to speak in too high terms of the munificence shown by Mr. Freer in this offer: and it is one which the Government of the United States should at once close with as a matter of course. Mr. Freer's collection is literally priceless: it includes hundreds of the most remarkable pictures by the best known old masters of China and Japan. It also includes hundreds of pictures, studies, and etchings by certain notable American artists, those by Whistler alone being such as would make the whole collection of unique value—although the pictures by the Chinese and Japanese artists are of even greater worth and consequence. There are other art pieces which I need not mention. Any comptent critic can testify to the extraordinary value of the collection. I should suggest that either Doctor Sturgis Bigelow or Mr. John La Farge be sent to Detroit to examine the collection, if there is any question about it; although I assume that every member of the Board of Regents is familiar with its worth. The conditions which Mr. Freer imposes are in effect that nothing shall be added to or taken from the collection after his death, and that the collection shall be exhibited by itself in the building to be constructed for it without charge to the public; furthermore, that he shall have the right to make such additions to the collection as he may deem advisable, but not to take anything away from it after April next, the collections remaining in the possession of Mr. Freer until his death and then in the possession of his executors until the completion of the building. These conditions are, of course, eminently proper.
All that is asked of the Government or the Regents of the Smithsonian now is that they shall accept this magnificently generous offer. Nothing whatever else is demanded at present When Mr. Freer's death occurs land will, of course, have to be allotted for the erection of the building—a building which will itself be a gift of great beauty to the Government—and when the building is completed and the collection installed therein, and not before. Congress will have to take some steps to provide the comparatively small sum necessary to take care of what will be a national asset of great value.
I need hardly say that there are any number of communities and of institutions which would be only too glad themselves to promise to erect such a building as that which Mr. Freer is going to erect for the sake of getting this collection. The offer is one of the most generous that ever has been made to this Government and the gift is literally beyond price. All that is now asked is
