Stuart Little helps lost Hungarian painting come home

A long-lost avant-garde painting has returned home to Hungary after nine decades thanks to a sharp-eyed art historian who spotted it being used as a prop in the Hollywood film Stuart Little.

In 2009, Gergely Barki, a researcher at Hungary's National Gallery, noticed Sleeping Lady With Black Vase by Robert Bereny (1888-1953) in the 1999 kids' movie about a mouse as he watched TV with his daughter Lola.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Bereny's long-lost masterpiece on the wall behind Hugh Laurie, I nearly dropped Lola from my lap," Barki, 43, says.