Page 27 - Unlikely Stories 2
P. 27
VERONICA
From Fantastic Transactions, volume 2 (1997)
Sensitive to the peer’s rank and ego, Jean d’Istaille, director of the
National Art Museum in London, arranged to meet Sir Payne
Delamort in the latter’s club rather than obliging him to traverse any
of the public areas of the museum en route to the director’s posh
inner sanctum. For his part, Sir Payne’s insensitivity to the feelings of
anyone of lesser rank prevented him from recognizing the
arrangement as anything other than his granting a sort of audience to
a well-manicured supplicant. He was, after all, related on his mother’s
side to the royal Paynes.
“Good to see you again, Sir Payne.” They shook hands, and
d’Istaille allowed himself to be steered toward a sitting area away
from the other members; certain types of business, he knew, were
best conducted in a congenial but private setting. They ordered
drinks, mumbled a few pleasantries, and got down to it.
“Your grandfather’s taste in paintings was quite eclectic, was it
not?” The Delamort collection had, in fact, been amassed by the
depredations of one of the last of the Edwardian era’s great robber
barons. Gems of astonishing luster were mounted next to appallingly
obvious pieces of paste in the Delamort mansion, a country estate of
no particular interest to the National Trust but whose contents were
selectively coveted by curators on three continents.
“Indeed, he left us quite a legacy. One we are no longer willing to
maintain in the condition it deserves. As you are no doubt aware, it is
the family’s wish to place as many as possible of our, how may I put
it, superfluous works of art in British collections.”
D’Istaille nodded sympathetically. The old bugger needs cash, he
thought, and he hasn’t been able to get the price he wants from the
Met or any private Japanese collector. “The National Museum of Art
will do all in its power to assist you in achieving that highly patriotic
goal, Sir Payne.”
“Harrumph! Least I could do.” Delamort was determined not
to show any more of his hand than necessary to this jumped-up
barrow-boy posing as a connoisseur. He was certain he remembered
26