The Lost Leonardo

The Lost Leonardo (2021)

The inside story of the painting that seduced the world.

London, England, 2008. Some of the most distinguished experts on the work of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) gather at the National Gallery to examine a painting known as Salvator Mundi; an event that turns out to be the first act of one of the most fascinating stories in the history of art.

Date of release
2021-08-20
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (56)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Documentary, History
Director
Andreas Koefoed

Casting

Interesting facts

The Lost Leonardo is an internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Andreas Koefoed, released in 2021. It follows the discovery and successive sales of the painting the Salvator Mundi, allegedly a work by Leonardo da Vinci, an artist for whom there are only a few attributed works in existence. The film chronicles the dramatic increases in the painting's value from its original purchase in 2005 for $1,175 to its auction in 2017 for $450 million, when it became the most expensive artwork ever sold. The use of high-end artwork for hiding wealth, as well as the conflicts created by large commissions and other economic incentives, are explored in the film.

Production

In April 2019, the British art critic and filmmaker Ben Lewis published his well-received book, The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World’s Most Expensive Painting, giving a detailed account of the discovery and sale of the Salvator Mundi painting, and the issues and concerns around the provenance and authentification of the work.

The producer Andreas Dalsgaard told BBC Culture that "When we chose the title, the inspiration was partly that the painting is lost right now and the truth is lost, but it was also inspired by movies like the Indiana Jones movies that are full of treasures and treasure hunts".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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