Luck plays an important part in collecting. I happened to be at a gallery when Cézanne's great La Montagne Sainte-Victoire was offered to a New York collector. The price was set, but the collector insisted on the dealer taking back an early painting by Cézanne as part of the payment, which the dealer refused to do. He then offered me the painting at the same price if I would pay him the money, without any trades, which I did. This painting is one of the most important, if not the most important, in my collection.

I recently attended an auction sale in Philadelphia [The Mullen Collection, Samuel Freeman Galleries, Philadelphia, Nov 15, 1967] , and bid on a Cézanne landscape, which I eventually bought for a large sum. This was the most important group of paintings ever sold at a Philadelphia auction house. Little did I realize that, as this painting was the most expensive one in the auction, I would be singled out for attention by the press. Although I refused to give any information about myself or permit myself to be photographed, I was photographed leaving the building.

The next day all the Philadelphia papers had lengthy accounts of how I had bought the most expensive painting, and describing how I bid. I had begged the photographers not to take my picture, because I knew many people in Philadelphia with whom I did business, and seeing that I was paying six figures for a painting, they would invariably think that the profit I was making on their business was a key to my buying such expensive paintings. Had I known that I would get so much publicity, I would never have bought the painting.