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IMDbPro

The Lost Leonardo

  • 2021
  • PG-13
  • 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
3.1K
YOUR RATING
The Lost Leonardo (2021)
THE LOST LEONARDO tells the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million, claimed to be a long-lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. From the moment it is purchased from a shady New Orleans auction house, and its buyers discover masterful brushstrokes beneath its cheap restoration, the fate of the Salvator Mundi is driven by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. But as its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity. Is this multi-million dollar painting actually by Leonardo – or do certain power players simply want it to be?
Play trailer2:07
4 Videos
22 Photos
Suspense MysteryDocumentaryMystery

The mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing.The mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing.The mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing.

  • Director
    • Andreas Koefoed
  • Writers
    • Mark Monroe
    • Andreas Dalsgaard
    • Duska Zagorac
  • Stars
    • Mohammad Bin Salman
    • Doug Patteson
    • Jerry Saltz
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    3.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Andreas Koefoed
    • Writers
      • Mark Monroe
      • Andreas Dalsgaard
      • Duska Zagorac
    • Stars
      • Mohammad Bin Salman
      • Doug Patteson
      • Jerry Saltz
    • 18User reviews
    • 57Critic reviews
    • 79Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 nominations total

    Videos4

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:07
    Official Trailer
    The Lost Leonardo: Provenance
    Clip 1:43
    The Lost Leonardo: Provenance
    The Lost Leonardo: Provenance
    Clip 1:43
    The Lost Leonardo: Provenance
    The Lost Leonardo: Painted This Picture
    Clip 1:06
    The Lost Leonardo: Painted This Picture
    The Lost Leonardo: Sleeper Hunter
    Clip 1:39
    The Lost Leonardo: Sleeper Hunter

    Photos21

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    Top cast30

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    Mohammad Bin Salman
    Mohammad Bin Salman
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Doug Patteson
    • Self - Former CIA Officer
    Jerry Saltz
    Jerry Saltz
    • Self
    Morten Bjørn
    • Art Historian
    • (as Morten Lange)
    Martin Kemp
    Martin Kemp
    • Self
    Robert K. Wittman
    Robert K. Wittman
    • Self - Investigator
    Kenny Schacter
    • Self
    Dianne Dwyer Modestini
    • Self
    • (as Dianne Modestini)
    Georgina Adam
    • Self
    Luke Syson
    • Self
    Dmitry Rybolovlev
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Ashok Roy
    • Self
    Bradley Hope
    • Self
    Stéphane Lacroix
    • Self
    Alexandra Bregman
    • Self
    Alexander Parish
    • Self
    Jacques Franck
    • Self
    Bernd Lindemann
    • Self
    • Director
      • Andreas Koefoed
    • Writers
      • Mark Monroe
      • Andreas Dalsgaard
      • Duska Zagorac
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews18

    7.53K
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    Featured reviews

    7ineke-hordijk

    The Lost Leonardo

    Saw this at Tribeca Film Festival. Fascinating story with many twists. Recommended for everyone interested to know more about the (dark side of the) art world.
    8martimusross

    We Still Never Found Out Where It Came From

    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.
    7rannynm

    For a story about one of the most highly controversial pieces of art, this lacks luster

    The Lost Leonardo recounts one of the most expansive and expensive stories the art world has ever seen. This documentary has a knack of looking at this painting's recent history from a different angle every 20 minutes or so, revealing a whole different facet of the fervor surrounding this single piece of art and how the conversation around it became about so much more than the painting itself.

    This odyssey of art and commerce begins in a warehouse, where a painting called the Salvator Mundi from one of the masters of the field, Leonardo Da Vinci, was thought to have been lost to time and languishes before being discovered by two art dealers who look for paintings that are worth more than they seem. Little did they know, they just stumbled upon their greatest find in that respect. They purchased the painting for 10,000 dollars and had it restored, in hopes that the work was that of Da Vinci's. The restorer's work supported that conclusion and, with that, a whole new journey with it begins. It ends up selling for hundreds of millions of dollars after it travels the world and comes into contact with everyone from the general public, to art critics, to experts, to Russian billionaires, to wily art dealers and world leaders.

    Director Andreas Koefoed seems to understand the potential of what he has at his fingertips here - betrayal, treachery, power, greed - it's a winning concoction. For all the goodwill it earns in the riveting way it unfolds, The Lost Leonardo lacks a stylistic backbone to hold the whole thing together. It relies heavily on one-on-one interviews with experts, critics, and those that played in Salvator Mundi's discovery, restoration and sale. Those interviews bear no intimacy to them, which works in giving objectivity to the events documented, but their implementation grows tiresome. Koefoed has little else up his sleeve to tell this story and, for one about art and one of the most prolific pieces in a long time the world over, that's more than disappointing. This film about Salvator Mundi lacks imagination and creativity and is quite staid, which distracts from the gold mine Keofoed has here. Mundi's story certainly is anything but boring; so it's unfortunate that it is told that way.

    I give The Lost Leonardo 3 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 8 to 18, plus adults. Nothing in the movie is objectionable, beyond some nudity shown in the artwork. If you've got an interest in the business of art or the work of Da Vinci, this one's for you. But more than that, the directions this story takes are so unpredictable that I think it makes this documentary easy to recommend to anybody. The Lost Leonardo comes out in theaters August 27, 2021.

    By Benjamin P., KIDS FIRST!
    9Valid_ID

    Revealing, informative documentary

    This documentary is less about whether or not "Salvator Mundi" is by Leonardo da Vinci, and more about the shady ways the mega-rich use art as investments, to transport currency, as tax havens, and as political capital.

    Sadly, none of these super rich people lose money in opaque transactions. The crooks who started it all made 83 million USD. The incompetent curator from the National Gallery in London didn't lose his job after lying about the painting being authenticated, and certainly retained his bribe. The ruthless Russian oligarch not only didn't lose money, as expected, but almost quadrupled it from 120 mil USD to 450 mil USD.

    It's frustrating and disheartening to see the insatiable greed of those who have more than they know what to do with, but I am glad I watched this documentary, and learned something.
    9classicalsteve

    Maybe the Greatest "Sleeper" Painting Ever Discovered or Greatest Art Fraud of All Time

    "The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." Leonardo da Vinci. William Shakespeare and/or Leonardo da Vinci also once said that "Eyes are the windows into men's souls".

    This documentary about the controversial painting recently attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, "Salvator Mundi" ("Savior of the World") may also show that in the art world, the eyes of a potential master painting may also reveal men's souls, particularly those who may seek to benefit from such an artwork. In other words, the mesmerizing power of a painting's eyes may reveal everything from awe and wonder to contempt and avarice among those involved in the art trading game. Art is not just about beauty but also commerce and even reputations.

    Most of us laypeople who hear about old master paintings which are auctioned for millions of dollars, euros, or pounds, can only dream of possessing such works. However, those in the middle of the fine art game see things the public rarely glimpses.

    This documentary reveals how a painting like "Salvator Mundi" (c. 1500-1510) have many forces at work among players in a host of different areas: art restorers, art historians, art collectors, art dealers, art auctioneers, museum curators, and even national governments. All are shown to have played a part in the fascinating recent history of "Salvator Mundi".

    The painting was won at auction by two art dealers who are constantly looking for "sleepers". "Sleepers" in the fine art world refers to misattributed fine art, including paintings and other fine art, which are sold with a misunderstanding of the paintings' origins. In some cases, the artworks turn out to be of much greater importance and in turn of much higher value.

    Robert Simon and Alexander Parish bought the painting for under $1200 in 2005, the auction house out of New Orleans believing it was simply a copy of a long lost Leonardo da Vinci. Not a real Leonardo, but simply by one of his students, assistants, or maybe even a follower who had not known Leonardo at all. It was described as heavily over-painted and a "wreck".

    They commissioned art historian and restorer Dianne Modestini to restore the painting in two phases. Firstly, to clean and remove the overpaint, and secondly, restore those areas which had been "lost".

    After the restoration, Simon and Parish sought to sell the painting in part to pay for their many expenses, mostly the restoration. Thus begins a strange and winding tale from its placement in the art market, its eventual sale (twice), the last at Christie's Auction House, and then the strange circumstances regarding its being pulled from a Louvre exhibition of works of Leonardo.

    It begins with art experts, some favorable to the painting with a few unfavorable. There is the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier who had a Russian oligarch client, Dmitry Rybolovlev. Rybolovlev desired to buy the best paintings on the market. As events unfold, in part because of information regarding Bouvier's business practices, it turns out Bouvier was defrauding his client and others regarding prices he paid for paintings and then for how much he resold them to his clients.

    It winds up in an auction at Christie's where it sells for a record hammer price of $400 million, plus $50 million in premium/commission for a total of $450 million. The total surpasses the previous auction record of approximately $180 million (hammer) for a fine art piece.

    But even the high price at the auction is not the end of the story. For a time, no one knew who the buyer was, the Saudi Crown Prince. The Prince agrees to lend the painting to the Louvre for their special Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. But at the last moment, he pulls the painting from the exhibit.

    What happened? The claim is about national politics (MBS wanted the painting in the same room as the Mona Lisa, aka Giaconda, but the French refused). However, further speculation is that the Louvre examined the painting themselves and may have found some attributes of the painting which may affect its reputation negatively. Several people involved try to obtain information from the Louvre, but they hit a brick wall.

    Overall a wonderfully compelling documentary about the art world, and how it's not just about artistic beautiful but politics and careers. Of all the people interviewed, art historian/restorer Dianne Modestini comes off with the most integrity. She determined the work was by Da Vinci when she began restoring the painting's lips. No one painted lips like Leonardo, and she concluded that was enough to convince her it was real. She had no ax to grind and was going to be paid for her work regardless. So her opinion I value highly. However, other art historians disagree...

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Leonardo DiCaprio was named after Leonardo da Vinci. According to DiCaprio's parents, they were looking at a da Vinci painting in Italy when his mother first felt him kick. They took it as a sign and decided to name him after the Renaissance artist.
    • Connections
      Features CBS This Morning: Episode dated 2 November 2017 (2017)

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    FAQ17

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 26, 2022 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • Denmark
      • France
      • United States
      • United Kingdom
      • Sweden
    • Official site
      • The Lost Leonardo official website
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Italian
    • Also known as
      • Salvator Mundi ou la folle ascension d'un tableau
    • Production companies
      • Elk Film
      • Pumpernickel Films
      • Alba Collis
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $445,740
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $12,487
      • Aug 15, 2021
    • Gross worldwide
      • $600,188
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 36 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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