Right before we finally signed the deal to buy the house we now live in, my wife and I did a walk through which the vendor, and he pointed at various things, saying, "I'm taking that, but I'm leaving that" etc. Generally, of course, he was leaving the things we didn't want, taking the things we did.

And at some point we came to the wall above the couch, on which was a signed poster of Man Ray's "Observatory Time: The Lovers," signed by the artist.


"I don't suppose you're leaving that behind,...