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Royall Tyler to Robert Woods Bliss, December 11, 1938

Hôtel des Trois RoisHôtel des Trois Rois (Hotel Drei Könige), one of the oldest luxury-class hotels in Basel.

Bâle

11.XII.38

Dear Robert.

I’ve just heard that Doro has secured his visa & that his papers are now all in order, & that he’ll leave as soon as he can, & hopes to report at Princeton in the first days of Jan. Of course he wouldn’t be of the race he is if he didn’t insist on going to say good-bye to his aged mother, his brothers & sisters, at Trieste; and I shall not breathe freely till he gets out of the country, for some wretched half-demented persecuted Yid might let off a gun—and then there’d be no escape for anyone. Blast his filial feelings—I’m doing what I can to rush him.

It wouldn’t be safe for him to write you from there, but it irks him not to be able to do it. Just let me tell you that he is endlessly grateful to you, as I am also—and I’m all the happier about it because I know he fully deserves your interest & will do his bit in the most handsome fashion.

I’m constantly thinking about the MakridyTheodore Makridy (Macridy) (1872–1940), a Turkish archaeologist and curator who was the founding director of the Benaki Museum in Athens (1931–1940); he was the former keeper (1872–1931) of the Greek and Byzantine department and the assistant director (1925–1930) of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. business, & considering minutely every step I take, with a view of securing that fragment.Wing of a triptych with the Archangel Gabriel and the bust of Saint Paul, tenth century, ivory, Benaki Museum, Athens, inv. no. 10399. The ivory was donated to the Benaki Museum in 1939 by Stephanos and Penelope Delta. Reportedly, it was acquired from someone named Tozakoglu. See Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections (Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Benaki Museum, 2013), 158–59, no. 76.

Much love to you both

R. T.

 
Associated People: Doro Levi