Hal Foster Prince Valiant 3-29-53

Here's the story on This page to date. Almost 20 years ago at Comic Con, I bought the Boltar panel ( Middle tier left panel ) from a dealer Richard Halegua. I figured I'd never get a whole page, so I'd just buy panels.
That's the good news, this same dealer had another panel, lower tier middle panel, but I didn't realize it went to the same page ( Someone else bought it )
The following year Richard had another panel, and this finished the middle tier .
Skip about 7 years, and the lower corner panels popped up on Ebay, from a collector in Kansas City. I won the auction and have been patiently waiting for the lower tier middle panel ever since.
Jump now to 2012, I'm on vaction with my wife when I get an email from a good friend Steve Staszower, letting me know, the panel I've been waiting patiently for is coming up in Comic Connect Auction in Dec, 2012.
Needless to say i have a GREAT wife, all she said was win the auction.
It only took 20 years to put this page back together, 1 panel at a time.
Interesting side notes: When Hal donated all the art he still possessed , to the University of Syracuse, NY. It included the entire year of 1953 with the exception of 3 pages. I don't know if the other 2 still exist, and again , it's taken me 20 years to put this page back together. I also don't know if any of the top tier is still out their, but I'm patient.
The other weird thing, I don't know why this page was broken up. Normally when you find single panels by Foster, they are signed to that person, Not a single one of these are, so if anyone can answer that question I would love to know.
Next thing is to get this restored. Most of the now put back together lower tier has some discerning condition problems, even though they are complete, someone else stored them on brown cardboard, the acid from the cardboard has stained several of the panels. I need this resolved to preserve this beautiful page.

Thanks for reading and enjoy.

T.