The Lost Leonardo

A painting bought cheaply at a New Orleans auction in 2005 turns out, as the restoration proceeds, to have expert brushwork under it. A group of specialists say it is Leonardo da Vinci's lost Salvator Mundi. In 2011 it is exhibited at the National Gallery in London. In 2017 it sells at Christie's for 450 million dollars and becomes the most expensive painting in the world. But the higher the price climbs, the louder the question of whether it is really a Leonardo. Andreas Koefoed's documentary presents the art market, the dealers, the museums and the states involved as links in one chain. There is no agreement among the experts: some give the picture to Leonardo, some to his workshop, some to somebody else entirely. It has not been publicly exhibited for years.