Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

NÉMETH, ISTVÁN: A Generous Gift or a Healthy Compromise? Some Contributions to the Background of the Donation of a Painting by El Greco

Taking all these into account, it would appear that the real protagonist in this story was maybe not Marcell Nemes of Jánoshalma but the director who had humbly concealed himself in the background but displayed an exceptional sense for psychology as well as for judicial argumentation in persuading both the ambitious collector and the scrupulous minister to accept his standpoint. It is only within the framework of the story of the donation of The Penitent Magdalen and other similar stories that we get to fully understand the eulogizing words that the period's celebrated author, Dezső Szomory, wrote about Elek Petrovics: "The look in his two eyes, his voice and his entire enchanting personality were impossible to resist. He settled with the meekness of a dove on such treasures that not even a golden eagle would have been able to convey on its wings. His quiet yet almost hypnotic talk induced even the hardest hards to surrender. It was real magic, under the mysterious domination of which certain collectors gave away their most beautiful pieces and, whether happily or not, I do not know, but made him a present of them

... "

26 ISTVÁN NÉMETH Translated by Axel Vécsey 26 The quoted lines of Dezső Szomory are cited in: A Szépművészeti Múzeum 1906-1956 (ed. Pogány, Ö. G.Bacher, B.), Budapest 1956, 38.