The Lost Leonardo

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source: The Lost Leonardo

Overall this was a very good documentary, we learnt much about the shady art world and big money. The outcome was unexpected when the Louvre authenticated the painting despite the level of repairs on the damaged painting and the owner was a Saudi Prince. I did feel slightly sorry for the restorer and everyone was questioning her integrity, despite the fact she was merely doing her job, even though she did get a cut of the first sale. I thought the painting looked the business. I not sure we were overly worried about the Russian as he made £400 million. I'm giving this an 8 outta 10 as I was gripped.

This is an excellent documentary, irrespective of the subject. The makers certainly knows how to make an outstanding, exciting doc with straightforward narrative. The other, 'Savior for Sale', is almost amateurish, squeezing 13 minutes of material into 90+ minutes of painful melodramatized tripe. By comparison, these makers took time, dug deeply, gained access, followed the many & various threads, and built a tremendous framework for telling the story. MANY jaw-dropping moments!

Documentary movie making at its best. The director & the writers did an amazing job in making such thrilling documentary. Drama, mystery, thriller, suspense all mixed in perfect proportion to make interesting & captivating from beginning to end. Well done.

A fascinating wonderfully made - and interesting - documentary. This is the perfect film for those not in the pompous stuck up inner circle of the world of art. It reveals the utter unimportant world that art really is and the dark side of its greed, corruption, crime and disgustingly vile amounts of money wasted every year on the buying and selling of paintings; some of which are truly hideous rubbish; IMHO! I attended classes of fine art when I was younger, which was where I discovered my dislike of it and the world of it, whilst also studying Graphic Design and, to this day I still indulge in digital art creation on my computer. Abstracts, fantasy, dream-scrapes and spaces-capes, plus my favourite style of work (which I call Free-form) that includes Fractal art. There are some interesting and utterly disturbingly tasteless individuals in this documentary (but just what - I at least - expect of this secretive seedy world). I shall not go into anything about it, as it is something you absolutely must experience for yourself...it is that interesting and gripping! I shall only say that the painting should not be classified as a Leonardo da Vinci work. The reason is because I believe it to have been worked upon by at least 3 people; and 2 of them did the larger percentage of the work!

Habent Sua Fata Picturae. Pictures have their own destinies. I wanted to see an unraveled mystery about a fascinating painting. Instead, I spent an hour and a half watching a documentary fixated more on money and art market dark secrets than authenticity of Leonardo's work. The dramatic turns kept my attention and the cinematography was decent, albeit based mostly on talking heads and glitzy scenes. My major disagreement with the director's approach is about the lack of historical perspective. The starting point of the story is two art dealers purchasing a potentially valuable old damaged painting. What happened before that, where did Salvator Mundi come from, who were the previous owners? The documentary does not touch even briefly on how the world's most expensive painting ended up at an art auction in New Orleans. I did a little research and found articles on the topic in the WSJ and other sources. I am not sure why the authors decided that the painting should magically appear in 2005. While there are gaps in its ownership history, it was not exactly lost. Only nobody knew that it could be attributed to the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci.

I see a couple of other reviewers above have commented that this story is 'incomplete' or doesn't give us all the answers. How could it? Whether the painting is genuine is still uncertain. What it does do, extremely well, is tell a fascinating story. Part 1 is about the painting's restoration and appraisal, Part 2 about its sale. But then there's a Part 3! Finally, unlike so many films, it's the right length - not overlong.

The film does a great job of telling this amazing story in step by step detail. The interviews with the collectors and investors involved are intricately woven as we climb through this journey from obscurity to verification of the paintings authenticity, then the arguments pro and con and finally to the unbelievable final sale of the painting. I recommend this film for anyone interested in art.

The Lost Leonardo grabs your attention with all sorts of intriguing questions: 1. What is the history of the Salvator Mundi painting? 2. What is a "Salvator Mundi" painting? Were there other Salvator Mundi's that pre-dated this one? 3. How did this painting end up in the estate of Baton Rouge businessman, Basil Clovis Hendry Sr.? 4. What percentage of the severely-damaged painting was over-painted by Dianne Dwyer Modestini when she did her recent restoration? 5. And most importantly, what is the evidence for and against full or partial attribution of the work to Leonardo da Vinci? 6. If the attribution is only partial, roughly what percentage of the painting was done by da Vinci himself? Unfortunately, the film never adequately explores the answers to any of these questions. As one IMDb reviewer commented, the filmmakers seem more interested in the mystery surrounding the $450 million deal than the mystery surrounding the work of art itself. But perhaps the biggest reason why these questions don't get answered is the seemingly unshakable adherence by most documentary filmmakers, including the makers of this one, to the now clichéd talking-heads documentary style that eschews all narration. You hardly ever see a talking-heads documentary that couldn't be improved by some narration to fill in the gaps in information provided by the talking heads. I had to go to Wikipedia to get the rest of the story .