Culture / Film

Leo is that you? A documentary on Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi is in the works

the lost leonardo

There once was a man named Leonardo Da Vinci, who did a lot of cool shit, including making a painting named Salvator Mundi that was the most expensive painting ever sold in 2017. Auctioned for $450.3 million, the lost painting was uncovered and restored, and the new documentary The Lost Leonardo will investigate how.

The documentary will  follow the story of the paintings discovery, found and sold for $1,100 at a New Orleans auction house before a restoration specialist thought she was uncovering something that never happens. “Nobody could have painted this,” she explains in the documentary, “apart from Leonardo.” As layers of paint from earlier restorations were removed, it started to become even clearer that they could have uncovered one of Da Vinci's lost paintings.

Premiering August 13 in New York and LA, The Lost Leonardo will explore the money-hungry side of the art world, the politics, and whether or not the Salvator Mundi is really an original work by Da Vinci himself. “As its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity: is this painting really by Leonardo da Vinci?” A synopsis reads.

As of now, its whereabouts is unknown since the painting was sold by Christie’s in 2017 for the record-breaking total of $450.3 million to Saudi Prince Badr bin Abdullah. Originally planned to be housed in the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the exhibition was cancelled, alongside the public's knowledge on the location of the painting.

As for the contents of the painting, the Salvator Mundi depicts Jesus in a Renaissance blue dress. In his right hand, he makes the sign of the cross and in his left, he holds a crystal orb. It depicts him as the title, Salvador Mundi, translating to the saviour of the world.

Watch the trailer for The Lost Leonardo, below, and prepare to be excited by the dramatic, political realm that is the art world.

 

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