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Show DODGE BOUGHT FAMOUS PEARLS Late Auto Builder Paid $825,000 for String as Gift to Wife DETROIT, Jan. 20. Horace E. Dodce, the automobile manufacturer, purchased, a short time before he died, the famous string of pearls that once belonged to Catherine II, empress em-press of Russia, as a gift for his wife, according to a statement given out here by Howard B. Bloomer, chairman of the board of directors Of Hodge Urother and executor of the estate of .Mr. Dodge. The firm of Cartler, Inc., New York, was paid JS25.000 for the neckline, Mr. Bloomer said. It I A I i .l 1 l II I Ownership of the pearls, said to he the most perfect Collection In the world, was open, d to speculation recently re-cently by the filing of a suit in New-York New-York by B ITren h Jewelry firm that alleged II had been defrauded of thousands thou-sands of dollars when Cnrtlet, Inc., disposed of them. The price paid hnd been reported as high as ji.r.oo.ooo In announcing that the necklace Was in the Dodge family, Mr, Bloomer made public a letter written by him to the Cartler firm, In which he offered of-fered to assist the firm In proving that $825,000 was the price paid b) Mr. Dodge The French firm contended con-tended a larger sum was realized HJSAV1 IMPOR1 i Government agents here declined to comment on their investigation to determine whether the import duty had been paid on the necklace. They previously had announced that if evasion eva-sion of duty was disclosed, the Jewels were liable to seizure. The officers made it plain, however, that the Dodge family had nothing to do with bringing the pearls into this country. Duty on the necklace would bo 60 pei i ent. |