Museums Borrowed Works

To the editors:

Stephanie Clifford's article on the debates around the acquisition of antiquities by the Harvard Art Museums (University, Feb. 19) was well written, fair and balanced. I write to correct just two misunderstandings. First, the Art Museums did not acquire an Anglo-Roman head. Rather, we borrowed one from a private collector who has promised to give the head to the British Museum at or before his death. For this reason, we received the approval of the British Museum before exhibiting the work. The British Museum did not object to our exhibit. Second, we did not exhibit works from dealers in our exhibitions of large-scale Roman bronzes and Greek vase fragments. All loans to these exhibitions came from private or public collections. JAMES CUNO   Feb. 25, 1998

The writer is Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums.