NTIL JUST BEFORE LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE in 1990, the paintings by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis [1875-1911] were, for decades, the best-kept secret in the Kaunas Museum that bears his name. The sister of the artist, Valerija Čiurlionytė Karužienė [1897-1982], firmly believed that the only way to preserve her brother’s art – mostly painted in egg tempera on cheap cardboard or paper which was slowly fading – was to keep his works shuttered away in Kaunas, not letting them be shown in any other part of the world. Although a national hero in Lithuania, she managed to keep Čiurlionis' art – and the man himself – a secret from the rest of the world for over 70 years. Now, a major exhibition in London will bring
