Hugo was born in Rybnik in 1886. He studied law, philosophy, and then art history. It was these studies that sparked his love for painting. Although he could not paint himself, he always wanted to be immortalized on canvas by some famous artist. At the time, none other than Edward Munch was gaining fame, and when Hugo found out that this painter had portrayed his cousin, he decided to take advantage of it.

Hugo started writing letters to his Norwegian idol. [sound of handwriting on a piece of paper] The correspondence went on for at least a few months until Munch finally invited Perls and his wife to his home. And there our hero got his way. It was immortalized on canvas. And not once, but four! Paintings depicting this Rybnik resident can still be seen in the Norwegian Munch Museum.

This visit was groundbreaking. Only 27-year-old Hugo understood that he wanted to not only learn about art, but also collect it, earning a lot of money from it. Paintings of the world's greatest celebrities scrolled through his gallery. In addition to the aforementioned Van Gogh or Mucha, Hugo Perls also sold paintings by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, not to mention the new star of world painting - Picasso himself! What's more, both were friends, and Perls's sons were supposedly present at the creation of many of the master's works.