Rediscovering Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi

Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press)Oct 14, 2019
The Salvator Mundi is the first Leonardo da Vinci painting to be discovered for over a century. In 2017 it was auctioned by Christie’s in New York, fetching the world record price of $450m.

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Many years of research from Martin Kemp, Robert B. Simon, and Margaret Dalivalle have culminated with Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi and the Collecting of Leonardo in the Stuart Courts, the definitive study on the re-discovered da Vinci masterpiece. In this documentary the authors tell the story of Robert B. Simon’s rediscovery of the painting in a minor regional auction house in the United States. Martin Kemp explains the meaning behind the painting and compares the Salvator Mundi to Leonardo’s other works, including the Mona Lisa. Margaret Daleville explores the much-discussed provenance of the re-discovered Leonardo, and sheds new light on the documentation and storage of the world’s most expensive painting.

******** CORRECTION ******** The book is now due to publish in November 2019.

THE LOST LEONARDO | Official Trailer (2021)

Sony Pictures ClassicsJul 8, 2021
THE LOST LEONARDO is the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. From the moment the painting is bought for $1175 at a shady New Orleans auction house, and the restorer discovers masterful Renaissance brush strokes under the heavy varnish of its cheap restoration, the Salvator Mundi’s fate is determined by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. As its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity: is this painting really by Leonardo da Vinci?

Unravelling the hidden agendas of the richest men and most powerful art institutions in the world, THE LOST LEONARDO reveals how vested interests in the Salvator Mundi are of such tremendous power that truth becomes secondary.