JERUSALEM, March 25 (JTA) — An Israeli gallery owner is seeking permission from the former Soviet republic of Belarus to buy the house where painter Marc Chagall was born, dismantle it and bring it to Jerusalem. The dealer said he hoped that the Jerusalem municipality would make it possible to rebuild the house, which could serve as a museum for Chagall’s works. The idea was developed by Itamar Barkai, a gallery owner in Jerusalem who is responsible for Chagall’s artistic legacy in the Jewish state, Israeli media reported. Chagall was born in 1887 in Vitebsk, a small Russian village that is now in Belarus. Chagall, who was a forerunner to surrealism, drew his subject matter from Jewish life and folklore. Among his most famous works are the 12 stained-glass windows at the Hadassah Hospital in the Ein Kerem section of Jerusalem. Chagall died in 1985.
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