Few art aficionados can rattle off many names of 18th-century women artists. And one who is Jewish? That’s almost like chancing upon a yeti riding a unicorn. Having bought a Torah ark curtain by Simhah Viterbo (1739-79) in 2019, the Saint Louis Art Museum is sticking with the Jewish artist, whose husband and son were rabbis.

In December, it bought an embroidered cover for a synagogue reader’s desk—more commonly known as a bimah—at a Sotheby’s auction. The textile bears the Viterbo family emblem of grape clusters; vite is “grapevine” in Italian, so curators at the museum believe Viterbo made that piece as well.