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| Hungarian masterpiece spotted in Stuart Little film to be auctioned | Hungarian masterpiece spotted in Stuart Little film to be auctioned |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The annual pre-Christmas auction at Budapest’s Virag Judit gallery has been warming up chilly December evenings for decades, but this year’s event will be more special than usual. | The annual pre-Christmas auction at Budapest’s Virag Judit gallery has been warming up chilly December evenings for decades, but this year’s event will be more special than usual. |
| On Saturday night, the undisputed main attraction will be Róbert Berény’s exquisite Sleeping Lady with Black Vase, an art deco portrait of Eta, his second wife, that was thought lost before it was spotted in the background of the children’s movie Stuart Little shining an international spotlight once again on the Hungarian painter. | |
| Hugh Laurie, who stars in the film, was moved to tweet last week that he had been a “little hurt to discover the foreground performances couldn’t hold the attention, but still, what an honour”. | |
| It was art historian Gergely Barki who identified the lost work five years ago after reluctantly switching on the film to appease his bored daughter at Christmas. “It was the best Christmas present for an art historian,” he said. | |
| Hungary’s stormy 20th century played a part in the scattering of Berény’s works – and relatives. Barki, who has rediscovered many of the country’s lost paintings, believes the painting is likely to have been sold in 1928 in Hungary “because that was when it was last exhibited and, as most of the buyers were Jewish, it probably left the country as a result of the war”. | |
| For Thomas Sos, the painter’s grandson and a professor of radiology in the US, the resurgence in interest in Berény is exciting. “It is great that the focus is on one of his best paintings,” he told the Guardian. | |
| As well as being an artist, Berény was a composer, psychiatrist and inventor. “He was one of the last of the Renaissance people, who not only had a deep interest in many things, but also a talent,” Sos said. “He had a magical persona and even registered several patents for movie projectors at the German patent office.” Berény was an innovator too, he added, claiming that “his use of the goat symbol in 1906 might have prefigured Chagall’s”. | As well as being an artist, Berény was a composer, psychiatrist and inventor. “He was one of the last of the Renaissance people, who not only had a deep interest in many things, but also a talent,” Sos said. “He had a magical persona and even registered several patents for movie projectors at the German patent office.” Berény was an innovator too, he added, claiming that “his use of the goat symbol in 1906 might have prefigured Chagall’s”. |
| Berény spent several years as a young artist in Paris exhibiting alongside Henri Matisse, conversing with Gertrude Stein and even hosting the usually reclusive Hungarian composer Béla Bartók for Christmas. His portrait of the composer was the most celebrated of his early career. | |
| Back in Budapest, he hosted a salon with his first wife – Sos’s grandmother – before fleeing, post-war, to Berlin where he became a composer and dated Marlene Dietrich. Sleeping Lady with Black Vase probably dates from the mid-late 1920s, when he had returned to Budapest. | Back in Budapest, he hosted a salon with his first wife – Sos’s grandmother – before fleeing, post-war, to Berlin where he became a composer and dated Marlene Dietrich. Sleeping Lady with Black Vase probably dates from the mid-late 1920s, when he had returned to Budapest. |
| Filmmaker and lecturer Lidia Szajko is the grandchild of Berény and Eta – “an accomplished cellist” – who is depicted in the painting. | Filmmaker and lecturer Lidia Szajko is the grandchild of Berény and Eta – “an accomplished cellist” – who is depicted in the painting. |
| “He was a mythical figure in my childhood ... and his many musical scores, essays and patents in addition to his prolific artistic output attest to his many talents,” she said. | “He was a mythical figure in my childhood ... and his many musical scores, essays and patents in addition to his prolific artistic output attest to his many talents,” she said. |
| But added: “While his talents were recognised in Hungary during his lifetime, this did not readily translate into material comfort and there were times he would literally trade art to provide a meal for his family.” | But added: “While his talents were recognised in Hungary during his lifetime, this did not readily translate into material comfort and there were times he would literally trade art to provide a meal for his family.” |
| Fast forward to the mid-1990s when art collector Michael Hempstead saw the painting at a St Vincent de Paul charity auction house in San Diego. | |
| “I think I only paid $40 (£25),” he said. “Somebody had just donated it, probably with a lot of other items. A friend referred me to an antique store. The auction records for Berény were $400-$600 at that time and I seem to remember getting a similar price.” | |
| Later, a Hollywood assistant set designer paid a trip to the shop on Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, California, and picked up the work for $500. By the time Barki got in touch with her about a decade later, it was hanging in her bedroom. | |
| “I saw the movie when it first came out and thought ‘oh my god, I owned that painting’,” said Hempstead. “I even thought about buying it back because I had seen that Berény’s prices had gone up.” | “I saw the movie when it first came out and thought ‘oh my god, I owned that painting’,” said Hempstead. “I even thought about buying it back because I had seen that Berény’s prices had gone up.” |
| He is stoical now. “I helped it on its travel to Pasadena and on to the movie. I am happy to be a part of its history.” | He is stoical now. “I helped it on its travel to Pasadena and on to the movie. I am happy to be a part of its history.” |
| Prior to the mid-1990s, the history trail is cold, at least for now. | Prior to the mid-1990s, the history trail is cold, at least for now. |
| In Budapest, the delighted Virag Judit gallery can expect to make a killing on this newly famous painting. “The starting price of €110,000 (£87,000) is equal to what a quality Berény can be sold for,” Barki noted. Howeverhas high expectations. The starting price for tonight’s auction is €110,000 (£87,000)., Berény’s proud grandchildren on opposite coasts of the US enjoy their grandfather’s works too much to consider letting them go. | |
| “He did several portraits of me including one on the day of my birth,” Sos said, referring to a drawing of a newborn baby under which Berény wrote: “I drew this for my Tommy, my first grandchild, at one day old – when he barely was – as a memory to that very far away time, when I shall barely be.” | “He did several portraits of me including one on the day of my birth,” Sos said, referring to a drawing of a newborn baby under which Berény wrote: “I drew this for my Tommy, my first grandchild, at one day old – when he barely was – as a memory to that very far away time, when I shall barely be.” |