Follow Jan. 28, 2021 Ben Buchenbacher, an artist who specializes in documenting and researching wall paint, couldn’t believe his eyes. Actually, his nose. Earlier this month, as he peeled off the layers of paint from the walls of Ben-Gurion House in Tel Aviv, a pungent odor filled the room. “It was unmistakable – cigarettes!” he said this week, his excitement palpable. “It’s like the smell that would greet people at bars back in the days when we all smoked.” What were cigarettes doing at David Ben-Gurion's old abode? Archival research revealed that the Old Man had been a smoker at least until 1940, eight years before Israel’s establishment. But could the cigarette odor have been preserved in the walls for 80 years, like a time capsule? It turns out, yes.