This lost painting was found in a children’s movie: bought for 40 dollars, sold for 230,000 euros.

It all started during the Christmas holidays of 2009, when Gergely Bark, an art historian and expert working at the Hungarian National Museum, was watching Rob Minkoff’s Stuart Little (1999) with his 3-year-old daughter.

It was then that he noticed a painting in the film hanging above the fireplace of a fictional family consisting of the eponymous little mouse (voiced by Michael J. Fox in the original version), his brother George (Jonathan Lipnick) and his parents. Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis. The painting in question was strikingly similar to the work of the Hungarian artist Robert Beren, who last appeared in public in 1928.

Gergely Barki actually recognized “Sleeping Lady with a Black Vase” from its title, thanks to a black-and-white photograph taken during a recent exhibition of the work.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Beren’s masterpiece that everyone thought was lost hanging on the wall next to Hugh Laurie!Barki said. “It wasn’t just for a second on screen, but in several scenes throughout the movie, so I knew I wasn’t dreaming. It was a very happy moment. It was the perfect Christmas present for an art historian“, he continued.

However, the film was released 10 years earlier and no one recognized the said painting. But how did such a work of art end up in a children’s film?

A painting that traveled

Gergeli Barki wore a detective suit. “I started writing letters to everyone involved in the filmHe told the New York Post. He sent letters to Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures and finally got a reply from the film’s former production assistant… two years later!

An assistant bought the painting at an antique store in Pasadena, California, for just $500, Bark said. Unaware of its provenance or value, he used the work to decorate the family’s apartment in the film based on the book of the same name by EB White. In the mid-1990s, art collector Michael Hempstead acquired the painting at a charity auction in San Diego for $40 before selling it to an antique shop.

“I think I only paid $40” he said (via The Guardian). “Someone just donated it, probably along with a lot of other stuff. A friend took me to an antique shop. Auction records for Bereny were $400-$600 at the time and I seem to remember getting a similar price.“

By the time Bark contacted the decoration assistant, the object was hanging in his room. Indeed, once the production Stuart Little Finished, he bought the painting. “I had the opportunity to visit, see the painting and tell all about the artist. He was very surprisedBarki added.

and Hugh Laurie in all this? When the Doctor House star heard the news in 2014, he couldn’t help but post on social media, joking that he was “It hurts me a little to find that the leading performances failed to grab attention“, before adding: “But still, what an honor.“

Robert Beren was a member of the Hungarian avant-garde collective known as The Eight, who helped introduce Cubism and Expressionism to Hungary. Although his works are highly acclaimed, the artist is perhaps best known for his love affairs: he is said to have dated the actress Marlene Dietrich in Berlin in 1920 and, according to Bark, had an affair with Anastasia, the mysterious daughter. The last sovereign of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II…

Still, Barke said, it’s possible the painting was bought by a Jewish collector who brought it to the United States because of the Nazi threat. “Many masterpieces were lost in the turbulence of the 20th century“- explained the expert.

Thanks to his lynx eye, the painting has since been repatriated. The assistant sold it to an art collector who returned it to Hungary. With a starting price of 110,000 dollars, it was finally sold at auction for 229,500 euros…

It’s your turn to catch the work in Stuart Little: The Movie is currently available to stream on Netflix.