The London Jewish Museum of Art has just acquired a previously unknown Marc Chagall drawing, one of his rare creations with a holocaust theme.

The New York Times reports on the incredibly acquisition of this 1945 drawing by Chagall, which has now become the centerpiece of their previously planned exhibit. Randy Kennedy reports that Chagall had kept the work for himself, but that after his death in 1985 it was sold to a private collector in the South of France.

And there it sat for almost 25 years until it was put up for auction for unknown reasons.

Chagall, who was born in Russia in 1887 in Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus), signed and titled himself lightly with a pencil in Russian — “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio”. Chagall was It is a dark drawing steeped in the horror of the holocaust, unlike Chagall’s often whimsical work visions of Eastern European Jewish folk culture.

He and his wife Bella had been living in France when the Nazis began its occupation. Eventually they relocated to the United States in 1941.

The unveiling of this lost Chagall masterpiece adds unexpected drama to a long planned exhibition of some 40 masterworks from the Museum collection. As a result the exhibit will be open at Osborne Samuel 23a Bruton Street, Mayfair, 8-31 January 2010. Admission is free.

The museum had been located at the Ben Uri Gallery, tucked into St. Johns Woods at 108a Boundary Road, off Abbey Road. But the gallery has had to close temporarily for building improvements.

The timing is particularly appropriate - January 26th is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

There are two previously known holocaust works by Chagall - “White Crucifixion” (1938) which is now at the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1943, Chagall created a similar painting called “Yellow Crucifixion currently owned by the National Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.

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