Subtler but just as resonant as the ballyhooing of the late Phineas Taylor Barnum was the publicity which preceded, last week, the public auction of two Renaissance paintings from the collection of Carl W. Hamilton of Manhattan. The two pictures were hung in a shadowy chamber in the Anderson Galleries. Tall candles gave an air of piety to the occasion. Uniformed Negroes stood gravely beside each canvas, so immobile, so harmonious with the austere gloom, that they were nearly invisible. Visitors hushed their voices, lightened their footsteps.
One of the paintings was...
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