Vanishing Treasures

Last week President Truman took a look at the German masterpieces in Washington's National Gallery, and liked them so well that he brought his family back next day. The Trumans had one advantage over the crowd: they saw the show, after hours. Since it opened (TIME, March 29), 600,000 people had milled through. There was a record crowd of 67,490 last Sunday.

Obviously millions more would like to seethe paintings, yet the Army was preparing to return them to Germany as soon as the show closed next week. Arkansas' Senator J. William Fulbright introduced a bill to hold the paintings in the U.S. a while longer.

Apparently, President Truman disagreed. That, he told his weekly press conference, is the kind of art I like--but it should be returned as promptly as possible to the rightful owners.

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