Etta and Gertrude were at one point lovers. The sisters' particular social contacts produced an advantage from which they could compile a world-renowned art collection. The Cone sisters built up a large collection of paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. The Cone sisters' use of the family's wealth to collect fine artwork was rare among women. When they went to the opera in Paris, they would buy an extra seat to hold the purchases they had made that day. Gertrude Stein later tried to downplay the Cone sisters as mere shoppers guided by their taste. In fact, the sisters had an excellent feel for fine art, influenced by the large collection of books on art which they purchased and used. The two sisters lived in apartments next to each other at the Marlborough Apartment building on Eutaw Street in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore for fifty years. Their art was hung on the walls of their individual apartments. The sisters' nephew later recollected that their display of pictures covered most of the wall space, even the bathroom walls. The Cone sisters also had an impressive collection of lace acquired from various European sources. From early drawnwork styles such as reticella, to needle lace and bobbin lace styles spanning the centuries, the Cone sisters amassed important examples that also reside in the Baltimore Museum of Art today and have been exhibited. Examples of the Cone lace pieces include a Chantilly lace fan, a Point de France flounce, and many other styles. Museum legacies While the sisters' collection remained private until Etta's death, Etta occasionally lent pieces to museums to exhibit. Claribel had willed her artistic paintings to Etta, spelling out in her will that these paintings should be transferred to the Baltimore Museum of Art if there was an interest in modern art. The bulk of the collection eventually went to that museum by Etta's will, and a new wing was added to the museum for the Cone Collection in 1957. The collection consists of approximately 3,000 items the Cone sisters had acquired over 50 years. The collection has not only French art, but American art as well, including over 1000 American prints, illustrated books, and drawings. Among these were cloth goods, costume jewelry, tables, chairs, and cabinets. The Cone sisters' items also include Coptic fragments, Middle Eastern silks, eighteenth-century jewelry, nineteenth-century furniture,