It was the Christmas holidays, and art historian Gergely
Barki was trying to entertain his bored daughter. He switched on a ten-year-old movie – Stuart Little – and half-heartedly watched with her. He was
suddenly much more interested when he spotted an art deco painting used as a
prop in the film. It was Hungarian artist Róbert Berény’s Sleeping Lady with
Black Vase, a work that has been lost since 1928. The painting was donated to a
San Diego charity auction in the early 1990’s. It sold for $40. After that, it
was picked up by an assistant set designer in Pasadena for about $500. When
Barki tracked the set designer down, the painting had been hanging in her
bedroom for about a decade. It has since been authenticated and sold for $285,700.
Hugh Laurie, who appears in Stuart Little, admitted to feeling “a little hurt
to discover the foreground performances couldn’t hold the attention, but still,
what an honor.”
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