Whenever I hear of people like Patrick Noon, making such short-sighted decisions, one has to question his credentials. How did he get his job? Selling that Bouguereau to acquire an Albert Moore is like trading Alex Rodriguez for Carlos Guillen (a good shortstop, but no future hall of famer). If Mr. Noon were in Major League Baseball, he would be fired on the spot for making such a decision. The fans would throw eggs at his car whenever he left the stadium. This reminds me of the time when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York stopped displaying their only Frederick Leighton painting. It used to be on the second floor right next to an Alphonse Mucha painting (that's also gone). I asked about that painting for many years after and could never get a straight answer. I wonder if anyone else remembers this? It was in the late 1980s. They have since remodeled the European wing of their museum, but the Leighton is nowhere to be seen.
