Few outside Boris Lurie’s intimate circle could have suspected that the Russian-born Holocaust survivor–one of the founders of the NO!art movement–had been leading a double life. For decades, while living outwardly as a penniless artist and espousing leftist politics, Lurie spent his spare time buying penny stocks and real estate, amassing a substantial fortune. When he died, on January 7, 2008, at the age of 83, Lurie’s investments were worth an estimated $80 million. He left no heirs, and his handwritten will specified that his entire estate go toward creating the Boris Lurie Art Foundation.
The foundation will clean and restore more than 600 of Lurie’s works and publish many of his writings. The foundation’s mission statement also describes a program of grants of up to $25,000 to “unrecognized, innovative artists in all media… whose work broadly embraces the spirit of the NO!art movement represented by the life and work of the Founder Boris Lurie.”
