Famous Danish architects tells:

On Saturdays, during the 60's and 70's it was a perennial treat to visit Galerie Birch on Admiralgade. Børge Birch had a unique flair as well as a nose for contemporary art and his gallery was always full of exciting temptations. Mr. Birch sat at his desk and carried on conversations with potential buyers from everywhere, including artists and museums.

His gallery had an unbelievably incredible, captivating atmo¬sphere which was often the basis for our having bought a good painting or a good sculpture.

Now that so many years have gone by, we have to acknowledge that most of the paintings which we have kept, after a great many purchases and sales, stem from Birch's gallery. For example: Carl Henning, Appel, Alechinsky, Walasse Ting, Horning, Robert Jacobsen, Reinhoud, Tabouchi -- all of these have been bought from Mr. Birch, and none of them do we want to part with.

Having visited the gallery one Saturday, when we went out to go to our car, which we had parked just outside, we could see that it had been badly damaged. A slip of paper had been placed behind the windshield-wipers, and on it the offender had given both name and telephone number. He had been parked behind us and happened to drive into our car.

Upon arriving home, we telephoned the number so as to obtain his policy number and to get more details about the circumstances of the accident, but his wife answered the call instead and said that her husband had not yet come home. We explained what had taken place and that we had parked in front of Birch's Art Shop.

To our great surprise, his wife did not care at all that her husband had incurred and accident-insurance expense. Having listened to what the accident was about, this was her reaction: "Has that fool been back there again buying pictures?! Every place inside of the house has already got pictures all over it -- be it in the kitchen or the bathroom. It is a total obsession with that little twerp!"

We took care of the practicalities later on with her husband; and, on the same occasion, we had a long chat on our mutual passion for the fine arts. We still run into each other at art exhibi¬tions and auctions.