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Fingers Crossed This ‘Lost’Masterpiece Turnedupinmysterious Circumstances

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Fingers Crossed This ‘Lost’Masterpiece Turnedupinmysterious Circumstances october 92011 Treasure hunt TheBrits whoare taking on the Somali pirates Save, save, save Meet the lottery winners whowon’t live it up Fingers crossed This ‘lost’masterpiece turnedupinmysterious circumstances. The National Gallery claimsit’saLeonardo.Can theybesure? FEAsAlvTUREAToR NAMUNdME i leonardo? Apreparatory chalk sketch Restoration reveals the Another draperystudy of draperybyLeonardo artist’s original position appears to be echoed in the forthe Salvator Mundi forthe thumb folds andfall of asleeve Thispainting of Christ will go on display at theNationalGallerynextmonth in a landmark exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci. It hasbeenvaluedat$200m andexperts and ConVInCeMe dealersclaim it is arediscoveredmasterpiece. Canitbe? Report by KathyBrewis 24 The Sunday Times Magazine 09.10..2011 TheSundayTimes Magazine 09.10.2011 25 SALVATOR MUNDI black-and-white photograph from Whyall the secrecy?“It’s just valued—nor is it for sale.At Renaissanceman at work about 1908 showsafairly crude privacyand security,” says Si- least, not yet. Exhibiting any The Salvator Mundi (top left). painting of Christblessing the mon. “One doesn’t want people painting increases its value, Left: Leonardo’s Ladywith world. There were manysuchpor- knocking on the door.” an expert in the art market the Ermine (1488-90) is traits in circulation, and nobody Nearly 500 years after his tells me,sowhile it’sonloan another lost masterpiece. Awasparticularly excited about this death, LeonardodaVinci still and for some time after,it The subject’s subtle expression suggestsan one.Now thatsame painting is making waves. It inspires aweand somewhat must not be floggedlestthe innerlifeand soul. Below: has been restored and hailed as the original obsessional devotion. “Robert gallerybeaccused of having preparatory sketches Salvator Mundi by LeonardodaVinci. TheRen- very wisely justsaid to me that ramped up the price.“The of her delicatehands aissance genius made only 20 known paintings he hadsomething exciting he assumption is thatatsome in his lifetime,including the Mona Lisa and The wanted to show me,” recalls pointitwill changehands, LastSupper.This could be the 21st. Penny, whofirstsaw the paint- for money.” “Itisaveryweird picture,” says Nick Penny, ing in 2007.“If he’d said ‘I think Whocould afford it? the National Gallery’sdirector,who claims he was I’ve gotaLeonardo’,Iwould Collectors in the Middle “pretty sure”thatitwas aLeonardothe moment have gone to see it much more East are bigbuyers, as are he sawit. It shares something,hesays, with reluctantly.Somanypeople say billionaire American art Leonardo’sportraits TheLadywith the Ermine they think they’ve gotaLeonardoand go bonkers lovers such as Paul Allen, of Microsoft; Steve and the Mona Lisa. “They respond, but hold overit. Butwhen Igot close,Ithought it could Cohen, the hedge-fund king;and Bill Gates, who something back. Youcan’t think about them ex- only be aLeonardo—parts of the work were so bought Leonardo’svastillustrated notebook,the cept in relationship to the viewer. They imply a extraordinaryinquality.” Codex Leicester,for more than$30m in 1994.The narrative of whichyou are apart. That wasnot TheChristinthis painting hasn’t the Mona Kimbell, amuseum in Fort Worth, Texas, recently true of portraiture before Leonardo. TheSalvator Lisa’ssmile,but he has asimilarly steadfastgaze; paid $24.3m for another Old Master —Poussin’s Mundi radiates the same kind of intense presence. there’sthe same immediacy and slightly unnerv- SacramentofOrdination. Afamous Klimtsold GES Butbecause it’sLeonardoyou do wonder if you’re ing overfamiliarity.His right hand is raised in the in February2006 for $135m. MA GI Y going mad—and youcertainly want people traditional gesture of blessing;his left holds a Buthow could agenuine Leonardohavebeen AK LIBRAR whose opinions yourespecttolook at it.” He globe. In 1958itwas sold by the Britishart histo- overlooked?Quite easily,itturns out. “I getsent ARIO; NT ITT FO rian Herbert Cook for just£45 (about £800 to- FW pauses. “People can judgefor themselves.” ‘Leonardos’ monthly,” says Martin Kemp,emeri- YO YO TES Forafew weeksinLondon youwill be able day).Simon won’treveal howitmade its journey tus professor of art historyatOxford. “These ALLER TG to see the Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) to America, stating only thatitwas in aprivate thingscome up all the time and youdevelop a COUR EFT: PL up close.Itmight be your only chance.Muchof collection for years and then surfaced when the well-honed mistrust.” Butwhen, twoyears ago, CTION/AR TO GES, the painting’s historyremains obscure.Its owner- late collector’s estate wassold in 2005. It’s now Pennytold him “There’s something it’sworth you COLLE PA ship is aclosely guarded secret. Robert Simon, a thought to be worth around $200m (£126m), coming in to look at,” Kemp wasintrigued. In the THESE THOMSON NewYorkart dealer, is representing the owner, making it one of the most valuable paintings in gallery’sconservation studios he joined “a little LLC. THE the world. Butthe work has neverbeen officially LEFT: or owners —the official line is it is a“consortium”. groupofpeople,including some Leonardoschol- MUNDI OR AT ars from Italy and from America, and Robert FROM have found, in Poland, the book from whichthis LV OM, SA Simon. There were pictures on easels in various TT portrait wasremoved—with apagemissing. BO states of disrepair,” he recalls. “A nd overonthe II. Fortwo “Leonardos” to have emergedsore- PAINTINGSBYNUMBERS VINCI/2011 left, as Iwalked in, there wasthis painting that DA cently seems near-miraculous. Still, when some- If theSalvator Mundi were indeed to realise $200m, it would be the most expensivepainting immediately hadthis presence.” Caution was ELIZABETH one brought Simon atatty,renaissance-ishpaint- ONARDO LE QUEEN ever to havechanged hands. The biggest price tag to date is for Jackson Pollock’sNo5,which essential, however. “You can easily by wishful TY ing nearly seven years ago, the art dealer took a IGHT: thinking start seeing what youwanttosee.You RR sold for $140m in 2006. In the same year,Gustav Klimt’sAdele Bloch-Bauer (below right) MAJES punt. It hadbeen all but ruined by overpainting FA HER fetched $135m. In 2002, Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens (below left) sold can makeyourself look abig idiot.” AND (the clumsyrepair work of pastcenturies)and the LEFT for $76.7m —after being judged by expertconsensus to be atrue Rubens the previous year Leonardo’sportraits are unearthly,partly due CTION, wood had“tented”and then been planed flat. But OLLE to the sfumato technique whereby layer upon COND LC SE there was something about the blessing hand… II; YA layerofextremely thin oilglazes, containing RO And so began adetective story. sometimes tinyamounts of pigment, confer asoft, IGHT: “I’dliketosay Ilooked at it and said, ‘Ohmy ELIZABETH PR non-definite effect. Thedifficulty with anything TO ‘I’d liketosay Ilookedatitand said, God, it’salostLeonardo!’ —but Ididn’t,” says QUEEN ION. AT to do with Leonardonow is the sfumato of vested TY Simon. “The idea wassoimpossible,socontrary MAJES interests, not justfinancial but professional —an FOUND “Oh, my god, it’s alostLeonardo!” to rational thought.And one’s opinion wasso KI HER expert’sreputation, agallery’sprestige, acurator’s YS much inhibited by the stateitwas in.” CTION, Butitwas so contrary to rational thought’ career advancement. Martin Kemp describes CZARLOR He wrapped it in agrey binliner and took it to OLLE himself as “austere” in taking no payment for his LC an old friend, the distinguished painting conser- YA PRINCES RO research—“It’s aslipperyslope,” he says. THE vator Mario Modestini, then 98 and confined to Three years agoanother “new Leonardo”,La RIGHT: One of the authenticators for thatpainting was Kemp is among the experts whovalidated the his apartment. Modestini put it up on the easel CENTRE: COND T. SE Bella Principessa, apainting of an adolescentgirl, AR Peter Paul Biro,who is suing the writer David painting as aLeonardo. He demonstrated thatit and looked at it with his wife,Dianne,professor OF popped up via Peter Silverman, aParis-based AND Grann for questioning,inalengthyarticle for wasdrawn by aleft-hander (Leonardowas left- of NewYorkUniversity’sConservation Center of LEFT dealer whoclaimed he’d stumbled upon it in a TITUTE TheNew Yorker,the validity of his proof —a handed), and found aletter in whichLeonardo the Institute of Fine Arts. Shecleaned off some of GES INS PA draweratafriend’s house in Switzerland. It later ULD smudgy fingerprintbythe artistthatonly showed expresses interestinmaking apainting on vellum the overpainting there and then, using asolvent, TA transpired he hadbought it from another dealer. up under a“multispectral”digital scanner. (he usually worked on wood). He also claims to and suggested thatthey hang on to it for a PREVIOUS a COUR 26 The Sunday Times Magazine XX.XX.2011 TheSundayTimes Magazine 09.10.2011 27 salvator mundi Return of aprincess? pretty sure there was ardoisasource of fantasy. Thepaintingsare not La Bella Principessa either aterrifically good knowable,”hemuses.“Everyoneofthempresents cametolightjust painting or aLeonardo aproblem and achallenge.”Eventhis one at this three yearsago in Britain in the mid-17th stage? “A rt historians are a prickly, competitive century,”saysKemp. His lot. Iwouldn’t be surprised if someone stucktheir while for further analy- team found newhistori- hand up and said, ‘I don’tbelieve it.’”Could the sis. Thefirststage of res- cal evidence —aninven- expertsbewrong?“They could be wrong about
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