Dossier RAS COLL4/2/7 - Portrait of Sir Mortimer Durand

Correspondence regarding the disposal of a portrait of Sir Mortimer Durand:

• Letter from [H.M.] Hake, Director, National Portrait Gallery, to the Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, to inform of the Trustees decision not to accept the portrait of Sir Mortimer Durand. Typed, 1 piece, dated 9 April 1943.
• Letter from Alex Godley, Deputy Chairman of Council, the Royal Empire Society, to the Secretary of Royal Asiatic Society to thank for the offer of the portrait but due to damage of their building in air raids of 1941, they have nowhere safe to keep it. Typed, 1 piece, dated 20 October 1943.
• Letter from Hon Secretary, Oriental Club, to Royal Asiatic Society to inform they have insufficient space to accept the portrait. Handwritten, 1 piece, dated 23 October 1943.
• Note to say that the Foreign Office had accepted the portrait for their office in Tehran. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.

Subsequent to this the Society in 2000-2001, initiated inquiries with the department, Government Art Collections, into the whereabouts of the portrait. It was ascertained that the portrait was shipped on the SS Kohistan in 1949 to Tehran but in a check in 1974, the portrait was missing though this had not been communicated to the Society. Ten pieces, typed dated 24 February 2000 - 15 November 2001.