Copyright THE LOST LEONARDO – Photo by ADAM JANDRUP. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
“This is the most improbable story that has ever happened in the art world,” is how the subject of the documentary THE LOST LEONARDO is described by one of its expert interviewees. Few artworks as valuable as those by Leonardo DaVinci, so the possibility that a known but long lost painting by the great master has been found generates headlines far beyond the art world. But an interest in art is not needed to be fascinated by the twisty, shocking tale told by THE LOST LEONARDO, a tale more about money and power than art. This top-notch documentary documentary takes us deep into the murky, hidden world of Old Masters art, a story involving extreme wealth, shady financial dealing, greedy institutions, ambition academics, clever auction houses, and basic human foibles, all sparked when a painting that might or might not be DaVinci’s long-lost Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) surfaces.
It is a wild tale but director Andreas Koefoed’s well-structured documentary keeps everything clear, while giving us the depth needed to understand the background and the various worlds involved. Those worlds are the art world, academics, museums and galleries, auction houses, art dealers and the wealthy clients who buy this most expensive art.
The photography is outstanding and, along with a bouncy score, lends a caper-film vibe to this fascinating, often jaw-dropping true story. Koefoed brings in many of the principle figures in this story, along with experts on art and the art world, one of the most opaque in existence, to help us keep track. The documentary offers an array of opinions on what this art work really is and the events swirling around it. It features some real characters on screen including the outspoken art critic Jerry Saltz, and insightful art collector Kenny Schachter, whose incisive comments often cut straight to the heart of the matter. Investigative journalists also weigh in, and even an ex-CIA agent.
Evan Beard, global art services executive at Bank of America, a major financer of high-value art purchases, serves as a kind of narrator of THE LOST LEONARDO’s crazy tale, which keeps everything clear and ordered. Beard, who supplied the quote at the start of this article, is a good choice as a narrator, with one foot each in the art world and financial one.
The painting at the center of this crazy story surfaced in an unlikely place, in New Orleans, at an art auction where “sleeper hunter” Alexander Parish spots it. A “sleeper,” as Parish tells us, is a painting that is clearly by a much better artist than the auction house thinks it is. There are many known copies of DaVinci’s Salvator Mundi but the original has not been seen for about 400 years. The painting in New Orleans is labeled as “after DaVinci” but it catches Parish’s eye, and after consulting with Old Masters art dealer Robert Simon, the pair buy the painting for less than $2000 and have it shipped to New York. They immediately see that the work has been extensively repainted, so they send it to perhaps the world’s top art restorer, Dianne Modestini, who cleans the painting of its coats of vanish and poor re-touching. Modestini’s work reveal a heavily-damaged painting with the most of the paint loss in the area of the face. But the less-damaged lower part of the painting is intriguingly like DaVinci. As she restores the painting, this renowned expert becomes convinced it is a genuine Leonardo.
“Everyone wanted it to be a Leonardo,” says Alison Cole, editor of an art periodical, near the film’s start. Her remark helps explain some of the frenzy and madness that ensues, not just among art experts but with wealthy buyers of art. Some of these billionaire see art more as an investment and a way to convert assets into a portable form and are motivated more by that than any real interest in art. But the extensive damage makes it impossible to say with certainty if this painting is an actual Leonardo.
An attempt to establish its provenance, to trace it back to the last known owner, proves incomplete. What really starts the ball rolling is when the painting is sent to a prestigious gallery in London, where top Leonardo experts are supposed to view it. Their opinions are unclear but the curator decides to put the painting in the gallery’s upcoming DaVinci exhibit, and labels it as by Leonardo anyway. The exhibit draws record crowds.
Finding a lost DaVinci would be a coup for any art academic and exhibiting newly-discovered one is a lucrative event for any museum and gallery, so greed and ambition emerge as drivers of events early on. It is easy to imagine this will be a story about greedy owners over-selling the authenticity of a dodgy painting to making a financial killing but, in fact, that is not the case here The real wheeler-dealers and shady dealings are far further up the ladder, and the original owners are small potatoes, as well as the most honest, in this murky high-stakes finance tale. The real sketchy dealings are at the wealthy top, with a Russian oligarch, an unscrupulous Swiss art dealer who also owns Geneva storage facilities the rich use to store valuables to evade taxes, an opportunistic auction house and a Saudi Prince linked to international scandal.
This is hot stuff indeed, filled with twisty, complicated dealings worthy of a thriller and characters who seem like something out of fiction too. There are several very sketchy characters but appealing ones too. Among the most charming and sympathetic figures in the film are the art restorer Dianne Modestini, who becomes overwhelmed by the media frenzy that ensues, peaking when the painting is re-sold at auction for a record breaking 450 million.
It is a wild ride stranger-than-fiction tale, like something out of James Bond but true, and director Koefoed takes us on a outstanding, insightful tour of it. THE LOST LEONARDO opens Friday, Sept. 3, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars
