Lost Szinyei landscape returns to Hungary after 80 years

The painting was owned by Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts but disappeared at the turn of 1944-45 when the museum’s collection was taken to safety in the West, deputy director-general Gyorgy Szucs told reporters. It has recently been discovered in a private collection in the United States by Mihaly Szarvasy, a Hungarian-born art collector from New York, who purchased and donated it to the Fine Arts Museum for its MNG collection. He delivered the painting to Hungary with the help of the Hungarian consulate-general in New York, Szucs said.

The painting’s value at the art market is estimated between 20-30 million forints (EUR 56,000-83,600), he said.

Szinyei painted the landscape while studying in the class of Karl von Piloty at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He spent a lot of his time at Lake Starnberg nearby, curator Orsolya Hessky, said. She added that the upcoming exhibition would show a collection of 120 Szinyei paintings.