Small London Museum Purchases Holocaust-Era Chagall
The London Museum of Art secretly purchased a rare Marc Chagall painting at a Paris auction.
The small gallery bought the 1945 painting created in response to the Holocaust for a fraction of its value, estimated at $1.6 million. The museum paid about $43,000, the Times of London reported.
The painting, “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio,” was purchased in secret in October to prevent larger museums from driving up the price, according to the newspaper. The museum was also concerned that if French authorities realized what a precious piece of artwork had been sold, officials would not have granted an export license, according to the Times.
The gouache painting, which uses a crucifixion to represent the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, reportedly remained in the artist’s personal collection until his death. His son sold it to a private collector in France in 1985.
It is scheduled to go on display this week.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
