A GOOD CAUSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19983, 28 October 1927, Page 8

A GOOD CAUSE

BUT THE WRONG MEANS THEFT FOR ART'S SAKE. PARIS, Oct. 15. Louis Parry, cashier of a large motor-car firm in the centre of Pans, now has cause for reflection upon the truth that an end, for however noble a cause, does not always justify the means, for he is charged with having embezzled 600,000 francs during the past four years in order to satisfy his love of art. When recently he left with his wife and three young children for a holiday grave irregularities were discovered in his accounts, and he was arrested and brought back to Paris. Under interrogation he confessed that he had been helping himself to the firm’s funds for some time. His salary was 1,650 francs (about £l3 10s) a month—a figure which dir! not allow him to indulge his taste for good pictures and valuable books, and his collector’s passion provad stronger than his honesty.

A search of his flat yielded a collection of fine pictures and books, including numerous first editions and editions de luxe, to the value of about 200,000 francs.