WTC > paintings

I waited then for James Hanlon’s call.
Which never came.

No matter how many times I called back Gédéon Naudet on his number during this morning of December 19, I would henceforth systematically come across his answering machine. I tried several more times in the afternoon, then in the evening, then the next morning. Unfortunately that day of December 20, I had no other choice but to take my plane back to Paris on same evening and land there on December 21, in order to have the time to travel and be with my family for Christmas.
Quite deterred and shaken, I refrained from calling again one last time in the late afternoon of December 20, just before going to the airport. It was clear to me that my interlocutors had had all needed time to contact me if they had wished to do so, during the two previous days. Gédéon Naudet could reach me by phone any time, with my number reconfirmed in all the messages that I had left on his answering service. James Hanlon likewise, my number appearing on the letter that was joined to the delivered paintings and which explained my project, along with my contact details also marked on each of the three paintings’ back. This implied that James Hanlon was totally able to reach me if he had meant to decline my offer at some point. Meaning that if it turned out that he did not wish to be associated with my project (and of course this was perfectly his right), he just had to let me know that in time. That is to say, in a reasonable lapse of time since my mail informed him clearly of my New York stay's shortness. I had stressed that point strongly to Gédéon Naudet as well, of course. By calling me without delay after receiving the paintings, I would have had the time to repatriate the works from the Fire Station before returning for Paris, and have them delivered at some New York friends' place to keep them safe until I could fly them back to Paris.
But only a vast blackout took place instead -like a silent and flat turn down of my proposal. This in contradiction with what I had been told on the phone by Gédéon Naudet when we spoke.

Therefore I returned to Paris without the paintings, and remained dealing with a silence that settled and since then never ceased. I tried a few more times to call Gédéon Naudet in January 2003, and on a few later occasions the same year. All of these attempts remained unsuccessful and met the same fate as those previously in New York. This persistent "radio silence" made me abandon my efforts permanently at that time. Since the end of 2002 and to this day, I have no idea of what happened to these paintings, none of my interlocutors having ever returned my calls or given me the slightest sign of life.

Except in 2019, quite unexpectedly. It happened that a close friend of mine, aware of my work about the World Trade Center and its New York epilogue, fell on Gédéon Naudet in a Parisian party, and contacted him again in the wake for asking his comment upon the 2002 events which had involved him and his friend James Hanlon. Gédeon Naudet did not contradict my girl friend on any of the facts she reported to him, except that he certified being unaware that James Hanlon had disappeared into thin air after receiving the paintings.

Does that mean that as soon as he hung up the phone with me on the morning of 19th December 2002 (and after that he had ensured me that Hanlon would call me shortly so that we could all meet), Gédéon Naudet suddenly never broached the subject again in any ways with his firefighter friend whatsoever, (and vice versa) since December 2002 ? It must be so, because he claimed in 2019 to ignore anything of what followed our last phone call. Or else, did James Hanlon assure him that he had contacted me, even that we had met in New York before I left, and that all was good? Only these two hypotheses can explain the state of ignorance claimed by Gédéon Naudet to my friend in 2019. As for the series of calls and successive messages left on the director's answering machine in New York after that we had spoken, and those left later after in 2003 -and which he never returned-, the matter did not elicit any comment.