‘Never sold a painting in his life – but died worth $100m’: the incredible story of Boris Lurie

The difficult, devastating work of the Holocaust survivor turned painter is being celebrated at a new exhibition at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage

He never sold a painting in his life, lived in hovels, yet died worth about $100m," says Anthony Williams, chairman of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, at a press preview for Boris Lurie: Nothing to Do but Try. He was," he later says with a sigh, a complicated man."

The paradox of Boris Lurie's living conditions is just one contour in the tragic and fascinating life of this painter, illustrator, sculptor, diarist, co-founder of the No!art movement, and concentration camp survivor, whose work is on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in lower Manhattan.