Q. David Bowers
"Early in February 1954, Molly and I and our daughter Sonnie arrived in New York City. Sol and Vivian Kaplan came from Cincinnati to meet us there. We had a couple days of preliminary work to do, and Sol had to attend to some stamp business.
"Late on the afternoon of February 4th, Kaplan returned from a visit to the stamp dealer who was expertising the Farouk stamp collection. The head man was still in Cairo, but his assistant was talking. He gave Sol an earful which Sol, in turn, related to me.
"If we believed the stories, we might just as well cancel our trip right then and there. A decision would not wait, however. We were scheduled to take off on BOAC early on the evening of February 5th, the next day. 'Let's go back there tomorrow morning,' I said, 'I've got to hear the story directly.'
"So, at 9 a.m., we were back with the stamp dealer. We talked for a while in generalities. He knew that I had been trying to buy the entire collection outright. I told him that we represented a syndicate worth $890,000 in cash and that we hoped to buy the entire collection for a million dollars or so. He laughed, 'not a chance.' He threw us into greater confusion with his story. Parke Bernet Galleries of New York City had a contract with the Egyptian committee, according to our informants. Except for the stamps which were to be handled by our informant firm and the coins which were to be handled by Hans Schulman (a likely story in view of the fact that Schulman had a claim of more than $300,000 against the Egyptian government), Parke Bernet would handle all of the other collections.
"He talked a lot more, stating that 80% of all the lots had reserves so high that the government would buy them back. Sotheby's would be out of their commission, because of their arrangement whereby the 5% surcharge is for Sotheby's except in the case of government repurchases.
"He talked more: 'Our firm is the only one that got paid in full for our claim, and that was paid by a special issue of stamps.'
"After an hour and a half of discouraging conversation we rose to leave. Well, we were already in New York; our plane was to leave that evening for London. If nothing else, we'll have a nice European vacation, we informed our smiling friends. Sol agreed, and we put on our overcoats and went to the door.
"As we shook hands to take our leave, our discouraging friend had a departing thought. As long as we were going to Cairo and would still try to buy the collection, why, their firm had a few wealthy investors also. Should we meet with any success and require an additional $100,000 or so, would we consider giving them a piece of the action?
"Imagine! All that talk about how silly and impossible everything was-and then asking to get a piece of the action! We laughed all the way back to our hotel just thinking of the chagrined look on the face of our stamp expert. We didn't cancel our reservations. We took the flight to London."
Abe Kosoff's recollections continued:
"An amusing incident occurred on our flight from New York to London in that pre-jet era. BOAC (British Overseas Airlines Corporation) used a Boeing Stratoliner, a big-bellied plane with a bar downstairs and a number of sleeping berths, one of which was reserved for Molly and me.
"Soon after take off they began to wine and dine us. For two and one half hours from cocktails to liquers we were served one delicious course after another. Finally it was time to go to sleep. They asked us to vacate our seats so that the berths could be made up.
"We had come prepared, each of us with a small travel bag carrying our night clothes and toilet articles. We retired to the bar to get out of their way, and in a little while we returned to find our berth ready. I found my overnight bag, but Molly's was buried under a pile of luggage, nowhere in sight, so she had to make due without her things.
"It seemed that we had just fallen asleep; my watch showed not quite 3 a.m. New York time, but it was 8 a.m. London time, when a hand plunged through the curtain of our berth. 'Good morning-breakfast,' was the announcement, as the trays came our way. My pajama tops were transferred from me to her, we had our breakfast, and dressed for landing in London.
"In London we had some more scouting to do. Baldwin and Spink had solicited many commissions and would, of course, attend the auction sales. Leonard Forrer, then a prominent London professional (who later joined the firm of Jacques Schulman in Amsterdam), was not going but was able to give me some detailed information of value.
"We met an attorney who was close to the situation. He told me some progress had been made in regard to Schulman's claim and that it looked favorable. The cataloguers had been criticized for the groupings of the lots, and a number of suggestions for splitting the lots were being considered. He was able to tell us that the Egyptian committee laughed at the idea of Parke Bernet Galleries being in control after the sale, but these laughs did not impress us. The attorney was more concerned with the export licenses, since any agreement with the military junta was a 'mere scrap of paper.'
"Armed with whatever information I could gather in London, I visited Sotheby's offices and spent some time with Mr. Clark, who was in charge of 'Operation Farouk.' While we were chatting, a clerk came in with an announcement, just off the wire services, by Farouk, that all merchandise would be subject to attachment and that all prospective buyers were being warned.
"The Egyptian reply denied Farouk any rights and quoted the law of February 1953 which established the new government and set forth 'the right of confiscation and the right to sell. Mr. Clark advised me that their Mr. Hobson had just returned from Cairo and that their Mr. Wilson was there now. Mr. Clark seemed concerned about the sale but was encouraged by my attitude, it being that I would go to Cairo prepared to buy. They felt that Schulman's threat of attachment was very important, and they exerted every effort on his behalf and were hopeful that the committee would agree to let Schulman use his credit of $324,000 against purchases.
"Those associated with Baldwin seemed equally concerned, but my final impression was that it would all work out and that the Farouk threat was more of a nuisance situation than something real. Still, we heard more rumors, including one which stated that a French dealer had unblocked funds equal to about $1,300,000 and that he was going to attend the sale. Stopping in Geneva, Switzerland, we learned that the Swiss were planning to stay home, a disturbing thought. But, in Rome, I was reassured when representatives of the Santa-maria firm indicated they would be in Cairo. So, for Molly and me it was on to Cairo.