Stuart Little – an iconic children’s flick defined by mouse-sides Corvettes and a family brave enough to adopt a rodent, has more secrets hiding in plain sight that the very plain-sight secret that yes, “Hugh Laurie was in this?”
Yet more than enthralling theaters full of ‘90s kids, the beloved film once served as a crucial piece of evidence in solving a nearly century-old art caper, helping bring back Róbert Berény’s avant-garde masterpiece, Sleeping Lady with Black Vase.
In 2009 while watching "Stewart Little" (1999), Hungarian art historian Gergely Barki saw the painting "Sleeping Lady with Black Vase" by Róbert Berény. It had been missing for 90 years and had been used as a prop. It was the original.
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) June 14, 2023
The painting disappeared in the 1920s, but… pic.twitter.com/FkhQIGSYZQ
Initially thought to be lost following World War II, one art researcher found a major clue to the avant-garde work’s whereabouts during a wintery movie night with his daughter, Lola, back in 2009.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Bereny’s long-lost masterpiece on the wall behind Hugh Laurie,” art historian Gergely Barki told The Guardian back in 2014, noting that he “nearly dropped Lola from my lap” upon spying the work. “A researcher can never take his eyes off the job, even when watching Christmas movies at home.”
Here's the full painting. pic.twitter.com/n8vI7B3Kx1
— Johnny Romero (@Johnnyromero1) June 14, 2023
After the credits rolled, Barki sprang to action, contacting several crew members who worked on the film and staffers at Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures.
After amassing a number of polite responses, Barki finally heard back from one of the movie’s set dressers who knew exactly where Sleeping Lady with Black Vase – which she said she picked up from an antique shop in Pasadena, California for just $500 years earlier – was hiding out.
“She answered it - hi, Gergely, the painting is with me in my home,” Barki told NPR of their encounter. “Whenever you come to the U.S., you are more than welcome to see the painting in real.”
The art expert ultimately took the crew member, who asked to remain anonymous, up on her kind offer.
“I had a chance to visit her and see the painting and tell her everything about the painter,” he explained to Vanity Fair, noting the set dresser “was very surprised” to uncover the work’s rich history.
She ultimately sold the work to a collector who put Sleeping Lady with Black Vase up for auction in December 2014, where it nabbed an eye-popping $285,700.
Kids movies – sometimes they’re good for more than entertaining children.
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