vinlandmap.info: Clues 76-150, selling to donation
- We did this, and sold the manuscripts in August 1959 to that individual (Laurence Witten)
- sold the map to Paul Mellon for approximately 300,000 dollars [about £107,000 in 1959] (Paul Saenger, Newberry Library)
- He purchased them for a sum reported to be £100,000 [about $281,000 in 1959] (Helen Wallis, British Museum)
- the proceeds of the sale in their entirety were paid to Mrs Witten (Laurence Witten)
- her financial records will show no payment of any kind to Mr. Ferrajoli or to Mr. Davis or any 'straw man' intermediary (L Witten)
- Likewise, my own accounts, both private and business ... (Laurence Witten)
- I will specify here and now that the sum I paid for the Vinland Map was $3,500 (Laurence Witten)
- Purchased from Enzo Ferrajoli through Nicolas Rauch of Geneva in 1958 by L. C. Witten (Barbara Shailor, Yale catalog)
- Purchased in 1959 from Enzo Ferrajoli through Nicolas Rauch, Geneva, by L. C. Witten (Barbara Shailor, Yale catalog)
- Sold to Laurence Witten by Enzo Ferrajoli de Ry, 1960 (Albert Derolez, Yale catalog)
- the British Museum ... bought IB.52000 and IB.52500 from Mr Witten ... Mr Witten had obtained these from Signor Ferrajoli (ebay Comm.)
- much of the total had already gone to the Internal Revenue Service, Rauch and Ferrajoli (L Witten, 1974/1989, re proposed full refund)
- Richest families ... Mellon family ... each worth between $500 million and $1,000 million (Guinness Records, 18th ed.)
- Income tax ... deduction for contributions may not exceed 20% of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income > (W.E Dickerson & L.D. Stone)
- > increased to 30%, however, if ... contributions made to ... tax-exempt educational institutions ... (Dickerson & Stone)
- Gifts of property other than cash are deductible at their fair market value at the time of gift ... (Dickerson & Stone)
- Income Tax rates: Taxable income $200,000 & over: rate pre-1964, 91%; 1964 77%; 1965 70% (Gary & Aldona Robbins)
- tax laws have been manipulated by collector-investors ... buy a contemporary painting cheap and then > (John Canaday, 1965)
- > give it to a museum at an appraisal value so large that he makes money by buying in order to donate (J. Canaday, New York Times)
- I provided the purchaser with my written guarantee of their authenticity (Laurence Witten, 1966)
- The private owner ... asked that the Yale University Library arrange ... in some way to have this map published (Alec Vietor)
- The owner ... asked Messrs. Skelton, Vietor and myself to prepare the manuscript for publication in strict secrecy (T. Marston)
- ... although he did not impose any form of secrecy, we, of necessity, felt that we had to be rather guarded (Alec Vietor)
- The map had been acquired, sold, and donated to Yale University Library under circumstances of secrecy (Wilcomb Washburn)
- Alexander Orr Vietor: Curator of Maps, Yale University Library (Introduction to official Yale book on the map)
- Mr. R.A. Skelton, Superintendent of the Map Room, British Museum (Introduction to official Yale book on the map)
- Dr. Thomas E. Marston, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Literature in the Yale University Library (Yale VM book intro)
- "Incunabula in the Yale University libraries" 1955. by Thomas E. Marston, curator of classics [et al.] (book description)
- I started to work on the Vincent of Beauvais and the Tartar Relation (Thomas Marston)
- ... my Latin was not good enough ... and I was delighted when Mr Painter of the British Museum took it over (T Marston)
- Mr. George D. Painter, Assistant Keeper in charge of incunabula in the British Museum (Yale VM book introduction)
- The monograph was to be financed by the owner, but he was to remain anonymous (Alec Vietor, 1966)
- This section was written from examination of the manuscripts at Yale in February- March 1961 > (R.A. Skelton)
- > supplemented by Mr. Laurence Witten's careful description of them {October 1958} (R.A. Skelton)
- From August 1959 until ... late spring of 1963, I had literally nothing to do with the manuscripts or the studies > (L. Witten)
- > aside from answering questions put to me from time to time by those responsible for the volume (Laurence Witten)
- ... what I have thought of in connection with the Vinland Map and the fact that some of the legends on > (L. Witten, 1961)
- > it do not correspond with spelling found in the Tartar Relation Manuscript (Laurence Witten to R.A. Skelton, 8 Mar 1961)
- I am, of course, most interested in your very shrewd comments arising from the discrepancies ... (Skelton to Witten, 3 May 1961)
- It was a particular pleasure to see you and discuss matters of common interest in New Haven ... (Skelton to Witten, 3 May 1961)
- The Vinland Map itself has involved a good deal of "cloak and dagger" business (Skelton to Witten, 3 May 1961)
- No matter how smart or how well-educated you are, you can be deceived (James Randi in "An Honest Liar", 2014)
- In March 1961, the police arrested Signor Ferrajoli, who was living in Barcelona (Anne Taylor, The Observer)
- The case of the vanishing rare manuscripts ... from Saragossa Cathedral in Spain (Anne Taylor, The Observer)
- lista ... fue publicada por Librería General en 1961 con el título de "Manuscritos, incunables, raros (1501-1753)" > (Anton Castro)
- > que recoge 107 manuscritos, 180 incunables y 276 raros, y fue confeccionada, durante la Guerra Civil (Anton Castro)
- The collection is designed ...
3. to provide representative texts illustrating Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century intellectual activity
- Clue 122 was from a letter by Thomas Marston offering many manuscripts to Yale University library, dated 1 May 1961 (vinlandmapinfo)
- all manuscripts in the collection were purchased by the Yale University Library Associates in 1962 (B.Shailor, Marston Mss catalog)
- MS 232 Evidence of early provenance was removed ... after 1954 when the codex was photographed at the Biblioteca del Cabildo, Saragossa
- MS 232: The 19th-century bookplates glued to the front pastedown ... were not present in 1954 (B.Shailor, Yale Marston Mss catalog)
- MS 168: this manuscript was formerly "31-17" in the Capitular library at Zaragoza (B.Shailor, Yale Marston Mss catalog) etc.
- MS 231: the bookplate on the front pastedown ("Ex libris Francisci Roux et amicorum") was apparently added in the 1950s (B. Shailor)
- According to Mr Witten, Signor Ferrajoli did indeed buy items from Saragossa, but in perfectly good faith (Anne Taylor, The Observer)
- Enzo had a fine classical education and wrote interesting poetry in Italian, Spanish, Greek, French, and Latin (Laurence Witten)
- in December 1961 Marston gave five manuscripts to the Yale School of Music Library (Barbara Shailor)
- He sold nineteen manuscripts ... in December 1961 through Sotheby's (Barbara Shailor, Yale Marston Mss catalog)
- He sold an additional thirteen manuscripts in January 1962 to Laurence Witten, who auctioned the majority of them (B. Shailor)
- In 1962, the library commissioned R.A. Skelton ... to survey the Harvard Map Collection and report on its future (hcl.harvard.edu)
- 1962 ... British Museum ... Skelton ... left in September for six months at Harvard sorting out their map collection (Tim Beaglehole)
- ... an unnamed collector associated with Yale has acquired an early pre-Columbian map (Chester Kerr, Yale University Press, Feb 1963)
- Dr. Helge Ingstad ... has discovered a settlement by vikings in North America 500 years before Columbus (Guardian, 6 Nov 1963)
- Vista de una causa por la desaparicion de codices incunables de la Catedral de Zaragoza (ABC, 6 Oct 1964)
- Ocho manuscritos griegos robados en La Seo de Zaragoza estan en la Universidad de Yale ... adquiridos de buena fe ... (ABC 8 Nov 1964)
- Witten affirma poseer fotostatos de cartas al italiano Enzo Ferrajoli, offreciendo manuscritos e incunables de la biblioteca zaragozana (ABC)
- Skelton's original paper in the official Vinland Map book was set for printing Feb 1963. "Bibliographical Postscript" added Nov 1964 (vinlandmap.info)
- US income tax rate on income over $200,000 per year: 1959-63 91%; 1964 77%; 1965 70% (G & A Robbins) [a reminder of clue 92- but note those change dates]
- Appraisals of art objects ... should include ... 3. A history of the item, including proof of authenticity. (IRS Pubn. 561)
- Mellon ... would not donate it in turn to the library until it had been authenticated (Vinland Map official book, 1995 edition)
- The editors ... are satisfied that the evidence, while in part circumstantial and not amounting to legal proof > (A Vietor)
- > justifies them in affirming without reservation the genuineness of the manuscript. (Alexander Vietor, official Vinland Map book)
- The book was in galley proof when this anonymous donor suddenly gave the manuscript to Yale (Thomas Marston)
- Mr Vietor and I had to go through the galley proof and take his name out and replace it with the name of Yale (T. Marston)
- ... last December gave it to Yale with the stipulation that his name be kept secret (Marion Steinmann, Life, 22 Oct 1965)
- The book was being financed by the owner (Alec Vietor, speaking at the Vinland Map Conference 1966)