Agamemnon on Time

The Meta-Mold Aluminum Co. of Cedarburg, Wis. is a corporation with an artistic soul. Its board chairman, Otto Spaeth, 57, is not only a shrewd and successful businessman but also a noted art patron and collector. In 1952, when Meta-Mold decided to build a new administration building, Sculptor Alexander Calder was called in to help design the lobby for a mobile that Calder named the "Otto-mobile" after Board Chairman Spaeth. Last summer Meta-Mold tried another experiment. It put on a show called "Art for Everyone--a purchase exhibition," in which 50 rented paintings and sculptures were offered for sale on easy monthly payments, with the company paying the artist the full price at the time of the sale.

The experiment was a rousing success. By the time the show was over, 26 paintings and sculptures had been sold for a total of $9,755. Among the buyers: a 34-year-old electrical worker who bought a dramatic canvas called Death of Agamemnon, by Kenneth Evett, for $450 ($85 down, $20 monthly). Fearing that he would be kidded by his fellow workers for"spending so much on art when I could buy a car or something," he asked Meta-Mold to keep his identity secret, hold on to the painting until he could find a place to hang it.

Last week Art Buyer X's identity was still secret, but arrangements had been made for a suitable hanging for his acquisition. Mr. X had given Death of Agamemnon to Marquette University on an indefinite loan, with the stipulation that he will be allowed to come and see it whenever he wishes. At the unveiling ceremonies, university officials made speeches, a student read the death scene from Aeschylus' Agamemnon. In the audience, beaming anonymously, was Factory Worker X, who was about to pay the current $20 installment on his picture.

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