Millions watched “Stuart Little”. For 10 years, no one noticed the missing work of art in the background

Barki associated the picture on the wall of the apartment of the Malutkis (played by Geena Dvis and ) with a black-and-white photograph taken at a Hungarian exhibition in 1928. It was then that the painting “Sleeping Woman and a Black Vase” by the Hungarian impressionist Róbert Berény was last seen in public. Since then, the work was considered lost and no one knew what happened to it during the turmoil of war. The art historian decided to investigate the matter thoroughly – it was December 2009.

She bought a picture for next to nothing so it would look nice on the wall

“Stuart Little” is an American-German family film and an adaptation of the book of the same name by EB White. In short, it tells the story of a nice family from New York. Mr and Mrs Eleanor and Frederick Little have a son, George, and plan to adopt a little brother. When they visit the orphanage, they accidentally meet an anthropomorphic mouse named Stuart – one of the orphanage’s wards. They start talking (because of course Stuart can talk – voiced by Michael J. Fox) and decide to adopt him. This is just the beginning of a series of more or less unfortunate adventures.

The cast of the film includes (in addition to Fox) m.in. Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki, and the production has two more parts. Shooting on the set of “Stuart Little” began in August 1998 and ended in November. It wasn’t until a decade later that it emerged that the filmmakers didn’t even know they had used a $110,000 piece of art, lost before World War II, as a prop.

Róbert Berény – ‘Sleeping Woman and a Black Vase’

He watched “Stuart Little” with his daughter. This is how he came across a valuable work that had been lost before the war

The Sleeping Woman and the Black Vase found its way onto the set of Stuart Little by an absolute accident. An assistant set designer dug up the painting in a small antique shop in Pasadena and bought it for $500. She liked it so much that she bought it from the studio after filming. The painting hung peacefully in her house for the next 10 years, until finally a Hungarian art historian did not start digging into the subject and reached her. “The image only appeared on the screen for a second, but it was seen in several scenes, so I was sure that I was not dreaming. It was a very happy moment,” he quotes his words.

Gergely Barki contacted almost everyone involved in the production of “Sturat Little” – the creators, producers from Sony and Columbia Pictures, etc. He wrote letters and e-mails to them, until after two years of searching, the film’s production designer finally replied to him. The art historian, delighted with the discovery, confirmed the authenticity of the work, and then went to visit his assistant, who was unaware of the importance of his discovery – “I had a chance to pay her a visit and tell her everything I know about the painter. She was very surprised” – he told in an interview with Vanity Fair.

Róbert Berény was a member of the avant-garde collective that helped introduce cubism and expressionism to Hungarian art. Although his paintings are highly appreciated, the artist, due to his temperament, is most often associated by posterity with his numerous romances. It was said that after moving to Berlin, he established an intimate relationship with Marlene Dietriech, the painter also claimed that he had a brief affair with the Tsarina Anastasia. It is believed that the lost painting found its way to the USA just before the outbreak of World War II or shortly after its beginning. Probably the rightful heirs had no idea how valuable the artifact was in their possession and simply sold it to an antique shop, where the set designer found it.

Thanks to an investigation conducted by Gergely Barki, the painting was returned to Hungary. An assistant, not named by him, sold the work to an art collector, who handed it over to the relevant Hungarian office. The Sleeping Woman and the Black Vase eventually went to auction for $110,000.