the last book I ever read (Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade, excerpt fourteen)

from Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade:

The writing of her memoir, however, was interrupted by a bitter dispute. Multiple high-profile art robberies had hit the headlines in recent years, which had heightened the anxiety of Allan Stein’s widow, Roubina, that her children’s inheritance remained in the care of a frail, possibly erratic old woman, protected only by ancient wooden shutters which could easily be breached. Over the years the estate’s lawyer, Edgar Allan Poe, had often recommended reevaluating the paintings, since their value had increased so greatly that the current insurance was no longer adequate; he also urged Toklas to consider placing them in a safer location than the apartment, which she staunchly refused to do. In 1960, Roubina Stein was alerted that a Picasso drawing, labeled as once belonging to the Stein collection, had sold at auction for around $10,000. Picasso’s fame was booming: his 1905 painting La Belle Hollandaise had recently garnered the highest price ever commanded by a living artist, while his retrospective that year at London’s Tate Gallery had opened to enormous fanfare, with a party featuring flamenco dancers and a special after-hours viewing attended by the queen. Shocked to discover one of the Steins’ works on the secondary market, Roubina demanded a new inventory be made of the collection, which revealed that it had depleted since Stein’s death: a portfolio of Picasso’s drawing and an oil painting, Man in Top Hat, had vanished without a trace.

Toklas calmly explained to Roubina’s personal lawyer, Bernard Dupré, that she had sold these works to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler back in 1953, when Van Vechten needed funds to guarantee the Yale Edition. Roubina was furious that Toklas had made a sale without consulting her, and at a fee (set, Toklas retorted, by Picasso himself) she considered far below market rate. She brought a legal action against Toklas, complaining that she left the collection unguarded for prolonged periods when she was away from home on her regular trips to the baths at Acqui in Italy (which helped with her arthritis), and that even when she was in residence, the apartment was vulnerable to intruders. Roubina demanded that the collection be declared “endangered,” and that all the artworks should be removed at once to a safe, dry, guarded place: the Chase Manhattan bank vault in Paris.