Renowned Lebanese artist's home destroyed by Israeli forces: 'We have no idea why, it was a place of peace'

They are erasing our heritage and our history, says son of the late painter and poet Abdul-Hamid Baalbaki

The house of the artist Abdul-Rahim Baalbaki has been destroyed. Photo: Lubnan Baalbaki

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An art centre that was a passion project for the late Lebanese artist Abdul-Hamid Baalbaki has been destroyed by Israeli forces, according to footage released in the past few days.

The house was located in Odaisseh, a village in Lebanon near the border with Israel. The Baalbaki house and two others nearby were demolished.

“We have no idea why it was destroyed,” said Lubnan Baalbaki, Abdul-Hamid's son and a distinguished orchestra conductor. “The house has no clear military activity. It is an artistic place in a peaceful neighbourhood.”

Abdul-Hamid Baalbaki was born in the village in 1940 and became an important Lebanese painter and poet. He was motivated by the social and political struggles of his day, which he depicted in bright, figurative canvasses – eschewing the abstraction then in vogue for styles more accessible to the public.

Abdul-Hamid Baalbaki's The Massacre of Deir Yassin from 1973. The work, now in the collection of the Dalloul Art Foundation, escaped the damage in Odaisseh. Photo: Lubnan Baalbaki

He began building the house in the late 1980s with the idea of using it both as a family home – a retreat away from Beirut – and an art centre for the area. In addition to his own work, which was kept in Odaisseh after he moved back there in the early 2000s, he was a dedicated collector.

He accumulated works by other prominent artists as well as ancient and historical ceramic artefacts, some of which dated back to the first millennium BCE. He also built a collection of hundreds of books and manuscripts. All these were on display on the second storey of the large house, which was kept empty of furniture and arrayed as a gallery.

After he died in 2013, his children kept the house open to the public and it often hosted visitors and students from Lebanon’s Academy of Fine Arts. Though off the beaten track, it earned a memorial plaque from the government and gave its name to its street.

“We insisted on remaining and continuing the project that my father started despite all the difficulties in the border villages,” explained Lubnan. “It was like a light beam in that political situation. We wanted to show that we had something different to say.”

The Baalbakis are a renowned cultural family. It includes Lubnan, the conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra; his sister Soumayya Baalbaki, an artist and singer; Oussama Baalbaki, also a painter; Monzer Baalbaki, an actor; and Salman Baalbaki, a musician. Their cousin is the artist Ayman Baalbaki. Though the children mostly grew up in Beirut, they spent much of their lives in the house and returned often. For them, it remained a home as much as a cultural site.

“Everything has been destroyed,” added Lubnan. “Not just the artworks but my father's letters and personal effects, and everything relating to our childhood memories. My parents' graves were even in the back yard.”

Abdul-Hamid Baalbaki's vast collection of ancient pottery, such as these lamps typical to the region, have been destroyed. Photo: Lubnan Baalbaki

Many residents left Odaisseh a week after the October 7 attacks and the Baalbakis were able to bring their father’s most important paintings to Beirut for safekeeping, but about 20 to 25 were left behind. Since the war started they have tried to return to take other artworks and artefacts, confirmed Lubnan, but the area has been under military control and they have not been given access.

The family learnt of the house’s destruction over the weekend via the footage released by Israeli forces of their bombing campaigns.

“They are erasing our heritage and our history,” added Lubnan. “We were fighting before to still exist as a centre for culture and art, and they have come and erased it.”