For most people outside of the art world, the concept of a painting is pretty basic: Paint on a canvas that is interesting to look at. Once viewed it is most likely forgotten (or, possibly, immortalized via a selfie where the art is merely secondary to the original desire to canonize one’s self in front of it). Sure, at times there are works of art that can move the public either to awe or anger, but those pieces tend to burn quickly through the public consciousness only to rest in the footnotes of popular culture (think Banksy’s Girl With Balloon shredding itself moments after bidding closed at $1.4 million or Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ which actually caused the budget of the National Endowment of the Arts to be slashed after it angered former Senator Jesse Helms).
In the new documentary by Andreas Koefoed, The Lost Leonardo, the idea of art and its origin story gets much more complicated than almost any other painting in history, and the journey that this painting (known as the Salvator Mundi) takes is just about as convoluted and crazy as the plot to any good action flick.
If you were to boil it all down it goes something like this: Guy sees damaged painting in a New Orleans-based art auction, guy talks friend into buying it with him for a small sum of $1100, art buyers take painting to a well-respected art conservationist/restorer, art restorer pegs it as an original Da Vinci, then, all hell breaks loose.
We’re talking shady brokers, speculative art dealers, an angry Russian Oligarch, secret vaults where rich people hide their loot from the tax man, an unsubstantiated provenance that red flags the art’s authenticity, hardcore online harassment of the original art restorer, the questionable morals of museums and auction houses, an obscene amount of money being thrown around that would make most people want to throw up and yes, even the Saudi Royal Family makes an appearance.
Yep, this story is wild.
Having said this, will an art niche documentary appeal to a lot of people, even those who don’t give much thought to art in general?
Absolutely. Because ultimately, it is not just the story of a painting that may or may not be an original Leonardo Da Vinci (which in and of itself is fascinating), it is really the story of pure unadulterated greed, the need for the ultrawealthy to possess what others cannot have and the ultimate desire to acquire the unattainable to exert power.
Told via interviews with the players involved and the vocal critics who were appalled by the lack of authentication the painting received before being shoved out into the world to the highest bidder (who paid almost a half BILLION dollars for what might have been simply a copy of a copy of a copy), The Lost Leonardo is a deeply salacious and well-made look at how art isn’t really about art per se, but of the ownership of culture at the expense of public good while asking two important questions: what good is a painting by one of the greatest artists in history (maybe?) if it’s locked up in a vault underground (or in the bathroom of a yacht)? And, if art is deprived of public viewing, is it of any value at all?
The answer is something you’ll have to think about because frankly, the art world is a hot, steaming pile of corruption (made abundantly clear in this doc) and, if anything, The Lost Leonardo is an excellent example of why taxing the shit out of the rich may very well protect the world’s cultural soul.
Seriously, after watching this, you’re going to want to punch anyone who buys, sells or markets art…multiple times…in the throat. In other words, this is a great film for anyone who wants to get mad and I highly recommend it.
Also, as a side note, one great lesson you should take away from this documentary is if you are hired by a Russian Oligarch to purchase art for them, try not to screw them over and skim some cheddar out of their pocket because they will find out and you will be totally screwed in ways you will be unprepared for. Just FYI.
******
Produced by Andreas Dalsgaard, Christoph Jörg
Written by Andreas Dalsgaard, Andreas Koefoed, Christian Kirk Muff, Duska Zagorac, Mark Monroe
Directed by Andreas Koefoed
Featuring Georgina Adam, Evan Beard, Yves Bouvier, Alexandra Bregman, Dianne Dwyer Modestini,
Antoine Harari, Martin Kemp, Robert King Wittman, Alexander Parish, Jerry Saltz, Robert Simon
