Art: By Popular Request

In 5½ weeks, the 202 German masterpieces in Washington's National Gallery had drawn almost a million visitors. Crowds were so thick that few got a good look at the paintings. U.S. Army officials had planned, and promised, to ship the whole show back to Germany as soon as it closed. General Lucius Clay insisted their prompt return would be proof that one conqueror was not a looter. Several Congressmen were equally insistent that more Americans should be allowed to see the paintings. Last week the Army worked out a Solomonic compromise.

As a starter, experts picked 52 of the most perishable pictures (mostly painted on brittle wood panels) to be shipped to Germany at once. The remaining 150 would be exhibited at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum, beginning May 18. They would be returned in three installments (the last one on March 31, 1949), and meanwhile exhibited, in diminishing numbers and for a small fee, at scattered U.S. museums. Needy German children would get the profits. Last week museum representatives converged on Washington to get their bids in. Result: from the Metropolitan, the paintings, will go to Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Toledo.