The Last Leonardo : : the Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting
Book - 2019 Adult Book / Nonfiction / Art / History / Lewis, Ben 1 On Shelf No requests on this item
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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Art / History / Lewis, Ben
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch
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"In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci's small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is "the rarest thing on the planet." Its $450 million sale price also makes it the world's most expensive painting. For two centuries, art dealers had searched in vain for the Holy Grail of art history: a portrait of Christ as the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Many similar paintings of greatly varying quality had been executed by Leonardo's assistants in the early sixteenth century. But where was the original by the master himself? In November 2017, Christie's auction house announced they had it. But did they? The Last Leonardo tells a thrilling tale of a spellbinding icon invested with the power to make or break the reputations of scholars, billionaires, kings, and sheikhs. Ben Lewis takes us to Leonardo's studio in Renaissance Italy; to the court of Charles I and the English Civil War; to Amsterdam, Moscow, and New Orleans; to the galleries, salerooms, and restorer's workshop as the painting slowly, painstakingly emerged from obscurity. The vicissitudes of the highly secretive art market are charted across six centuries. It is a twisting tale of geniuses and oligarchs, double-crossings and disappearances, in which we're never quite certain what to believe. Above all, it is an adventure story about the search for lost treasure, and a quest for the truth." -- Provided by publisher.
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PUBLISHED
New York : Ballatine Books, [2019]
Year Published: 2019
Description: 363 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9781984819253
1984819259
SUBJECTS
Leonardo, -- da Vinci, -- 1452-1519.
Jesus Christ -- Art.
Painting -- Attribution.