I am very grateful to Ofer and the “Galleria” editorial team for the truly professional and inevitable article, and for recognizing the importance of my grandfather’s legacy in publishing the article on the cover of the supplement.

For the avoidance of doubt: my grandfather’s will is anything but unclear. Although due to the brevity and privacy concerns, as may be implied from the article – but anyone who knew my grandfather and/or my father clearly knows how to read it unequivocally – my grandfather certainly dedicated much of his will to securing the well-being of his only son and all his children, and equally to commemorating his heritage for the public in Israel and around the world. He made sure to leave enough resources for the fulfillment of all these goals, without requiring any favors from anyone nor the state, and he also chose to entrust all this to professional, trustworthy and law-abiding hands.

It is important to note that my grandfather began drafting his will back in the 1970s, at a time when artists of his caliber could expect their contribution to the public to be accepted and commemorated by existing national museums by law. However, the worlds of art, heritage and information have completely changed since then, and this is no longer a viable option nowadays – what created a kind of lacuna in the will for the sake of commemorating his name.

To begin filling this gap, I have proposed, built, and keep on developing over the years – a comprehensive and sustainable infrastructure and work plan for the establishment of a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the preservation, expansion and accessibility of Alexander Bogen’s legacy and art, and supports a variety of initiatives and actions that embody the partisan, humane and multidisciplinary approach that Bogen exemplified in his life, art and public endeavors.

To this end, I was joined by top experts in Israel and around the world, and some of the yields of the joint efforts have already been published – such as Dr. Magdalena Tarnowska’s groundbreaking article “On the Life and Art of Bogen in Postwar Poland” recently published in Jews and Slavs, vol. 27, edited by Dr. Sergey Kravtsov, published by the Center for Slavic Languages and Literatures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana.

It is especially sad that the executor of the estate, not only does not act to fulfill the public will, daresay it as a “burden”, defiles the name of my late grandfather and slanders me – he seems to exploit mental illnesses in the family, to distort the will and law, and to sabotage my efforts, only as a pretext and cover up for endless procrastination and inaction for over a decade, and in bad faith.