THE LAST LEONARDO

The journey of a Renaissance painting reveals secrets of the contemporary art world.

Art critic and documentary filmmaker Lewis (Horizons, Zones and Outer Spaces: The Art of John Loker, 2019, etc.) crafts a richly detailed mystery surrounding one striking 15th-century portrait—“a piece of junk, a thrift-store picture sold at a rock-bottom price”—bought by two dealers in 2005 for $1,175, sold for $80 million in 2013, and, in 2017, auctioned at Christie’s New York for $450 million, making it the world’s most expensive painting. The work is Salvator Mundi, depicting Christ, his hand raised in blessing, holding a glowing orb: Christ as the Savior of the World. The mystery is its creator. To prove that the artist was Leonardo da Vinci, the dealers spent years investigating the work’s provenance, a record of ownership that shows how it was identified, the esteem in which it was held, and its value through the years. They also consulted with da Vinci experts, art historians, and an esteemed restorer who took on the challenge of painstakingly bringing the relic back to life. The work of restoration proved central to the painting’s fame and value. “The restorer,” Lewis notes, “spends hours at a stretch in a closed-off world, peering through magnifying visors, engrossed in the most minuscule details of a painting.” With the Salvator Mundi, though, the restorer’s work broached a border “between conservation and invention.” Controversy over attribution raged, inflamed by concern over the extent of the restoration, experts’ evaluation of brushwork and style, and, not least, professional rivalries, academic ambitions, and financial interests. Even after London’s National Gallery placed it in a da Vinci exhibition, some believed it at most da Vinci–esque, perhaps emanating from his studio. As Lewis chronicles the quest to attribute the painting to da Vinci, he uncovers an astoundingly dysfunctional world of museums, galleries, auction houses, collectors—a Russian oligarch and a Saudi prince among them—and unscrupulous middlemen, a world plagued by mistrust, suspicion, and the irresistible lure of financial rewards.

Art, greed, and stealth make for a lively tale of intrigue.