"Savior" Leonardo da Vinci: the story of the random discovery of paintings
Most world-famous museums store many paintings by Michelangelo and Raphael. But Leonardo da Vinci, though presented the world with a lot of things, but left only a few pictures.
According to various estimates, 15 or 17 paintings of the great Leonardo have been preserved, and the whereabouts of some of them are not reliably known.
The canvas “Savior of the World” was not among the “living” creations of the great painter, as it was considered irretrievably lost. The last mention of the picture was found in documents of the XVII century, after which its traces were lost.
Italian paintings such as “Monna Bath”, which was the naked version of “Monna Lisa” and “The Battle of Anghiari”, were destroyed, and the “Savior of the World” simply disappeared, as if it was not there.
The “Savior” was discovered quite by accident, during the restoration of the painting, which everyone considered to be a good fake of Salvatore Mundi's canvas. A dark, heavily damaged pictorial work was acquired by several businessmen at an auction at a ridiculous price and given to restorers to clean dirt and grime.
Specialists in the restoration of the paintings were amazed when, under the layers of dirt, they found a surprisingly accurately traced glass ball in Jesus’s hand, which correctly identified Leonardo’s hand.
Now “The Savior of the World”, which could easily hang somewhere in the hotel lobby or on the staircase of a large office, is one of the most expensive paintings on the planet, for which they gave $ 450 million at the auction.
According to various estimates, 15 or 17 paintings of the great Leonardo have been preserved, and the whereabouts of some of them are not reliably known.
The canvas “Savior of the World” was not among the “living” creations of the great painter, as it was considered irretrievably lost. The last mention of the picture was found in documents of the XVII century, after which its traces were lost.
Photo © bigpicture.ru
Italian paintings such as “Monna Bath”, which was the naked version of “Monna Lisa” and “The Battle of Anghiari”, were destroyed, and the “Savior of the World” simply disappeared, as if it was not there.
The “Savior” was discovered quite by accident, during the restoration of the painting, which everyone considered to be a good fake of Salvatore Mundi's canvas. A dark, heavily damaged pictorial work was acquired by several businessmen at an auction at a ridiculous price and given to restorers to clean dirt and grime.
Specialists in the restoration of the paintings were amazed when, under the layers of dirt, they found a surprisingly accurately traced glass ball in Jesus’s hand, which correctly identified Leonardo’s hand.
Now “The Savior of the World”, which could easily hang somewhere in the hotel lobby or on the staircase of a large office, is one of the most expensive paintings on the planet, for which they gave $ 450 million at the auction.
