In those cases where I knew the artists personally it was not at all difficult in getting permission letters signed, but for others I learned how detectives earn their living. In many cases contacting art dealers and museums quickly provided the information I needed although many times it was following a suggestion here to a hint there that finally led to a correct address. I found the web to be invaluable as a source but often with more dead ends than success.

A couple of examples.

Though our paintings were western scenes I had already run out of leads in the Arizona-New Mexico area and then remembered that Buck Saunders had once mentioned that this artist also painted a lot of seascapes and ships, and someplace in the back of my mind I thought I had recalled something about Houston, Texas. After calling several dealers listed in the Houston yellow pages one of them said that she remembered something about an artist with that name up in Oregon. Back to the web and in to the white pages directory. Oh yes, there were lots of people with this name, but one town had a whole bunch of individuals with the same family name. Time to gamble. I picked one name at random and placed the call.

I explained to the woman who answered who I was and the purpose for my call and she started to chuckle. “Well, I hate to tell you but we are the only family in this town with that name who is not related to him. We knew him well though and have lots of his paintings, would you like to buy some of them?” After declining her offer we had a delightful discussion about the artist and my hunt for him and prior to hanging up she gave me the current address of his eldest son living in San Francisco. Through him I finally got the approval letter signed.

In another case, while traveling the state I met the son of one artist for whom I had been hunting and in telling him of my problems I happened to mention another artists name. Yes, he knew him and told me that he was very ill and living in a convelscent center. Contacting the center I was informed that he was indeed gravely ill and the social services director indicated that his family had requested that no attempt at contact be made either to him or the family except by family members themselves.

 

I maintained contact with that social services director for about a year but then decided that I had been enough of a bother. Two years later I thought that perhaps I could at least call and find out how he was doing. When I called, she was no longer employed there but her replacement informed me that the individual had left that facility and had been transferred to another. Calling that center I was informed that the artist had passed away months before. With a little prodding I was able to get her to give me the name and phone number of a daughter who happened to live in the same city .

After several attempts I finally connected with the daughter and after explaining the reason for my call, she was sympathetic to my needs but didn’t feel comfortable in doing so, that I should contact her mother. Giving me the mothers phone number we terminated that conversation.

I had no luck at all in attempting to call at that number and so back to the web and the white pages using the reverse look up technique where you enter the phone number and it comes back with the name and address - except that there was no street or box address indicated! A quick call to the white pages phone directory assistance yielded the phone number of the local post office. Calling the postmaster in that village I explained the reason for my search and he reluctantly looked through his listings and found the appropriate box number so that I could finally mail my letter. After his death I was able to contact his widow and she indicated that she would have to get approval from all the members of the family. As of this writing that was six months ago and although I’ve talked to her twice, I really have my doubts that it will get done.

These two examples perhaps explain the absence of hair on the top of my head.

On a more serious note, however, in 2002 while searching for addresses on local Arizona Anglo artists while on the web I met Ms. Andrea Mugnier, the Curator/Registrar of the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg. From her I learned that an act in the Federal Courts established that the owner of a piece of art prior to 1/1/78 held “bundle copyright” to the piece unless it had previously been copyrighted . Thus a large portion of the collection was already protected under my name as buyer.

However, as noted above, there was also fun in attempting to track these families down.