The Colonești manor and its art fund fell victim to neglect. According to T. Vianu, the collection was "blown over by the wind of devastation" even during the interwar years. In 1924, in defiance of its owner's final request, it was subject to a hasty public auction. This drew protests from literary figures such as Cezar Petrescu, Perpessicius and Victor Eftimiu. As a result of the auction, many works passed into the collections of Zambaccian, Alexandru G. Florescu, Iosif Dona and several others. Of them, Zambaccian attributed the incident to the National Liberal government's unwillingness to accept donations from "a compromised person". He and several other commentators place responsibility for the sales on Finance Minister Ion Lapedatu, who is believed to have either hesitated in assessing the collection or to have plotted with businessmen who wanted it sold cheaply. Zambaccian was to be the eventual owner of "Lăutul". It became a feature of his own Bucharest museum, and appears with Zambaccian in an oil portrait by Pallady.