Art: Memphis Muddle

Stout, glad-handed Park Commissioner John B. Vesey of Memphis, wanted his city to have 1) the largest zoo in the U.S., 2) an eye-catching art collection. With the zoo the Commissioner was doing splendidly. But last week his art boom had the mange. He had spent some $25,000 in good taxpayers' cash for "old masters." There were some 38 paintings, all from the collection of Warner S. McCall, retired St. Louis public-utilities developer, a man who was wont to tread on rare Tabriz rugs and drink from cut glass goblets said to have been fingered by mad King Ludwig of...

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