Exclusive: Studiocanal, Entertainment 360 and The Picture Company have made deals to turn the 2021 documentary film The Lost Leonardo into a limited series. Gillian Weeks will write the script.
Directed by Andreas Koefoed, the docu explores the origin and surreal journey of the now famous painting called the “Salvator Mundi.” Discovered in an estate sale in Louisiana in 2005 by enterprising art dealers and purchased for 1000, the painting took on a life of its own when it was restored and authenticated as a true Leonardo Da Vinci. The authentication came from Dianne Modestini, a renowned art restorer and da Vinci expert.
After several real-life twists and turns that saw the painting travel through the underbelly of the international art world, it eventually sold at Christie’s auction house in New York for 450 million. That was the highest price ever paid for a piece of art, and it was purchased by Mohammed bin Salman,...
Directed by Andreas Koefoed, the docu explores the origin and surreal journey of the now famous painting called the “Salvator Mundi.” Discovered in an estate sale in Louisiana in 2005 by enterprising art dealers and purchased for 1000, the painting took on a life of its own when it was restored and authenticated as a true Leonardo Da Vinci. The authentication came from Dianne Modestini, a renowned art restorer and da Vinci expert.
After several real-life twists and turns that saw the painting travel through the underbelly of the international art world, it eventually sold at Christie’s auction house in New York for 450 million. That was the highest price ever paid for a piece of art, and it was purchased by Mohammed bin Salman,...
- 10/24/2022
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Early in “The Lost Leonardo,” there is one of those whoa! moments that can make you think no movie is more gripping than a great documentary mystery about the art world. In 2005, two dealers stumble onto an obscure painting of Jesus Christ, his hand raised in a sacramental gesture; the painting is being offered at auction in New Orleans. They think the painting has…something. So they team up to purchase it for $1,175.
Much of the canvas has been painted over, and after they bring it to the noted art restorer Dianne Modestini, she goes to work on it, removing layers of varnish and overpainting to uncover an image that is striking but damaged, dotted with white blotches and streaks, like emanations of a lightning flash. But as she starts the process of restoration, filling in the colors, teasing out a buried layer that shows the thumb in a different...
Much of the canvas has been painted over, and after they bring it to the noted art restorer Dianne Modestini, she goes to work on it, removing layers of varnish and overpainting to uncover an image that is striking but damaged, dotted with white blotches and streaks, like emanations of a lightning flash. But as she starts the process of restoration, filling in the colors, teasing out a buried layer that shows the thumb in a different...
- 8/12/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
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