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.
Review of The Lost Leonardo
