Following the instructions of Alfred Barr, the director of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Fry contacted several well-known artists including Marc Chagall, who was in particular danger because of the German anti-Jewish laws. Fry visited Chagall several times at his studio in Gordes; and although he did finally convince Chagall and his wife to flee France, Fry found Chagall, like most artists he encountered, extremely reluctant to leave.
			Varian Fry with Marc and Bella Chagall and Hiram Bingham, American Vice-Consul, Outside Chagall's Studio, Gordes, France, 1941 Cynthia Jaffee McCabe Papers, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum