The Lost Paintings Launch Event (Fall 2025)

(SOLD OUT) Join us for an event introducing The Lost Paintings, a Prelude to Return, an exhibition curated by Joëlle Tomb, Rula Khoury, and Haidi Motola presented at the Overlook Gallery in Fall 2025. The Lost Paintings is an imagined recreation of the last exhibition held in Palestine by Palestinian-Lebanese artist Maroun Tomb, which opened on November 29, 1947 in Haifa. The 1947 opening coincided with the very day in which the UN approved the Partition Plan of Palestine, igniting the Nakba and the forced displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians including Tomb and his family. The fate of the 53 oil paintings presented in the exhibition, as well as most of Tomb’s pre-1948 body of work, was lost to the war and its pillage.

The Lost Paintings will convene 53 artists from across Palestine and the diaspora to each create their own interpretation of a single lost painting from the original exhibition, based on the few remaining historical records – the invitation to the 1947 opening and an inventory of the paintings that were displayed in it.

This introductory event will include:

• exclusive insights about some of the original archival artwork
• a storytelling performance by Lebanese singer-songwriter Yamane
• an artist talk with Sara Mraish-Demeter and panel moderated by Jessica Hernandez
• a wine selection from the region
• branded merchandise to support this artistic initiative