Still-Life with Vases and Flowers

Value and forgeries. After the Second World War, the value of works by Litvak artists increased dramatically; and it keeps increasing every day, so it is only natural that forgeries appear on the market more and more often. Still Life with Vases and Flowers came to the Ellex Valiunas collection as a painting by Esther Lurie. However, the rather different style of painting and the vague signature in the lower left-hand corner of the painting gave rise to some doubt. The painting was more reminiscent of the work of her cousin Gitel Lurjytė. After examining the painting with infrared technology, the surname G. Lurjytė, covered with brown paint, emerged in the lower right-hand corner, and the true authorship of the painting was confirmed. It is hard to explain this: perhaps the artist herself decided to change the position of the signature, or maybe it was thought that Esther Lurie’s works would fetch a higher price.

Works of art are usually forged for profit, but in this case the opposite happened. Before the beginning of the Second World War, Esther Lurie, who was already famous in Palestine, came to visit relatives in Lithuania, including the artist Gitel Lurjytė, her cousin in Kaunas. Both were imprisoned in the Kaunas ghetto; but only Esther survived the Holocaust. She was able to continue her career and created many works of art, while the work of Gitel, a skilled and very promising artist, is known only from photographs today. Gitel was killed, so this painting is so far the only known surviving work by her, and is an extremely valuable object of the heritage of Lithuanian and Litvak art.

Text author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album STORIES OF LITVAK ART (2023). Compiler and author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Value and forgeries. After the Second World War, the value of works by Litvak artists increased dramatically; and it keeps increasing every day, so it is only natural that forgeries appear on the market more and more often. Still Life with Vases and Flowers came to the Ellex Valiunas collection as a painting by Esther Lurie. However, the rather different style of painting and the vague signature in the lower left-hand corner of the painting gave rise to some doubt. The painting was more reminiscent of the work of her cousin Gitel Lurjytė. After examining the painting with infrared technology, the surname G. Lurjytė, covered with brown paint, emerged in the lower right-hand corner, and the true authorship of the painting was confirmed. It is hard to explain this: perhaps the artist herself decided to change the position of the signature, or maybe it was thought that Esther Lurie’s works would fetch a higher price.

Works of art are usually forged for profit, but in this case the opposite happened. Before the beginning of the Second World War, Esther Lurie, who was already famous in Palestine, came to visit relatives in Lithuania, including the artist Gitel Lurjytė, her cousin in Kaunas. Both were imprisoned in the Kaunas ghetto; but only Esther survived the Holocaust. She was able to continue her career and created many works of art, while the work of Gitel, a skilled and very promising artist, is known only from photographs today. Gitel was killed, so this painting is so far the only known surviving work by her, and is an extremely valuable object of the heritage of Lithuanian and Litvak art.

Text author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album STORIES OF LITVAK ART (2023). Compiler and author Vilma Gradinskaitė