A brush with greatness?
Painting could be by no-name artist or maybe da Vinci
THE LOST LEONARDO ★★★★ out of 5
Cast: Jerry Saltz, Martin Kemp, Doug Patteson
Director: Andreas Koefoed Duration: 1 h 36 m
Available: In theatres
Jesus emerged in New Orleans a few years ago, and the world gasped.
The Salvator Mundi, or Savior of the World, as the portrait of Jesus Christ is known — believed by some to be a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and by others to be the work by a lesser artist — was discovered by Alexander Parish in 2005. The self-described “sleeper hunter,” an art speculator who scours the market for undervalued art, purchased it for $1,175, a drop in the bucket compared to its ultimate value, at auction, of $450 million.
This discovery is where The Lost Leonardo, a documentary from director Andreas Koefoed, starts on its complex journey, ultimately rendering a portrait of art criticism, ambiguities and the corrupting influence of greed.
The ensuing scramble of restorers, middlemen, government agents, the credulous and the skeptics could have been overwhelming, but the film handles its many threads deftly. Part of this is thanks to its brisk, thriller-like pace.
A documentary investigating a story that's already been in the news requires new insight or merit, and the strength of the film is in its interviews.
With them, the film traces the recent history of the Salvator Mundi through the hands it's been passed down in.
One notable figure is Swiss businessman Yves Bouvier. His involvement in the story is part of what has come to be known as “the Bouvier Affair” — an art scandal involving international lawsuits and accusations of fraud.
But the documentary finds its emotional centre in one person seemingly uninterested in maximizing earning potential: Dianne Modestini, the conservator who restored the Salvator Mundi after centuries of neglect and damage. She has an earnest love and reverence for the work of the old masters.
However, part of the controversy surrounding whether the Salvator Mundi is a bona fide Leonardo lies in the allegation that her restoration work overstepped conventional boundaries, turning the painting into more of a Modestini than a Leonardo.
It's an example of the kind of ambiguity that runs throughout The Lost Leonardo. Value requires a sense of certainty, built from critical and professional consensus. But centuries of indignities in transit and maintenance have eroded any definitive certainty about authorship. How confident would you be in believing an interpretation of a half-centimetre of paint, more than 500 years after it was applied, when tens of millions of dollars are on the line?
Ultimately, the strength of The Lost Leonardo is its inspection of how society reveres and seeks out capital, the real driving force behind the pushes and pulls acted upon the Salvator Mundi.