3/10/2023 0 Comments Possible lost masterpiece found![]() ![]() He painted the now-famous work on his return to Budapest after being granted an amnesty by the government in 1926. The newfound fame of the painting attracted a huge crowd to the auction on Saturday.īereny, a leading figure in a pre-World War I avant-garde movement called the "Group of Eight", was a friend of Austrian pyschoanalyst Sigmund Freud and held exhibitions in Paris with French painter Henri Matisse.Īfter designing recruitment posters for Hungary's short-lived communist revolution in 1919, he fled to Berlin, where he had a romance with actress Marlene Dietrich. "After the wars, revolutions, and tumult of the 20th century many Hungarian masterpieces are lost, scattered around the world," he told AFP. The owner of the painting during the decades before Hempstead bought it remains a mystery.Īccording to Barki, the buyer in the late-1920s was probably Jewish and left Hungary in the run-up to, or during, World War II. "I am happy to have been a part of the painting's voyage to the big screen and back to Hungary," he said. "It doesn't bother me that it is worth a huge amount now," Hempstead told AFP by telephone. He sold it soon after for around $400 to an antiques shop in Pasadena where it was picked up by a Hollywood studio set designer to use as a prop on soap operas and movies. "It's a fantastic painting, I hope the new owner will lend it for exhibition so many more of us can enjoy it," she added.Ī former owner contacted by AFP, Californian art dealer Michael Hempstead, said he recalled buying the painting for around $40 (32 euros) at a Catholic Church charity auction in San Diego in the late 1990s. "His life would have been easier with the recognition and valuations of his work," Szajko said. San Francisco-based filmmaker Lidia Szajko, grandchild of Bereny and his second wife Eta who features in the painting, said she wished her grandfather were alive to enjoy the attention. The reemergence of the painting also stirred mixed feelings for a relative of Bereny contacted by AFP. Supposedly, if I go to the bottom of the lighthouse in the Stoneship Age after unlocking the trapdoor, the lock and key are supposed to be down there on the floor. "After finally returning to Hungary in the last few weeks for the exhibition, now I don't know when I will see my 'dear' again," he added. Lost then found: missing lock/key I ran around to get the achievements Id missed playing through, and was not able to get one. "It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience to discover the painting, that was the exciting part," he told AFP. "Little hurt to discover the foreground performances couldn't hold the attention, but still, what an honour," he tweeted last week about his role in the painting's find.īarki opted not to go to the auction. Its unorthodox discovery even caught the attention of English actor Hugh Laurie, who co-starred in "Stuart Little" along with US actress Geena Davis, and, of course, the eponymous mouse. ![]() ![]() The work disappeared in the late-1920s but Barki recognised it immediately even though he had only ever seen a faded black-and-white photo dating from a 1928 exhibition catalogue archived in the National Gallery. ![]()
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