Divided into three parts (The Art Game, The Money Game, The Global Game) this is a fascinating documentary about wealth, the art world and the history of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci directed by Danish Andreas Koefoed. We jump from America to London to Russia, Paris, London, Geneva ,New Orleans, Berlin and elsewhere .It cynically examines greed as a way of maneuvering power and the politics of the high art world. There is a lot of financial discussion included. The various interconnecting interviews with top art curators, major art journalists, doubters, believers, brokers and assorted government agents are adroitly interwoven at an energetic pace, at times like a spy movie, but we are not too overwhelmed with information.

From 2005 we follow the history of a very famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, Salvatore Mundi (Saviour of the World)– a luminous painting of Christ.

Is  it really a Leonardo ? In 2012 a cavalcade of dealers and experts agreed that it was. We follow the delicate restoration and conservation by expert Dianne Modestini who also agreed. When layers of overpainting and varnish were carefully removed, a rather striking but badly damaged image was revealed with white streaks and blotches. As Modestini begins the restoration work, replenishing the colours and discovering a hidden layer that reveals the thumb positioned differently,  she find that the lips are drawn with no line – a brother piece to the Mona Lisa.

Modestini’s opinion that it WAS a Leonardo led to the National Gallery in London including it in its 2012 Da Vinci show as an original, which augmented the gallery’s world wide reputation remarkably.

But art critic Jerry Saltz declared it is not a Leonardo and there were still question . We then follow the Salvator Mundi as it goes on exhibition at various major galleries around the world, and the frenzied crowds and queues. But when the Louvre wanted to borrow it for a major exhibition the loan was refused.

For most of the rest of the film we enter the world of the almost incomprehensibly wealthy – Artworks like these are regarded as transportable major assets and a buttress for their eminence. We follow the story of two rich entrepreneurs, Russian oligarch art collector Dimitri Rybolovlev and Swiss tycoon Yves Bouvier, who bought paintings, including the Salvator Mundi, and sold them to Rybolovlev at scandalously inflated prices. The way the financial market has greatly influenced the art market is examined. We also see the global media frenzy at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses when in 2018 Salvatore Mundi was sold for $450m! to a mystery buyer,  eventually revealed as Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman who generally keeps it stored on his extra deluxe yacht or stored in solitary beauty and splendour in the desert.

Koefoed’s film seeks to allow us to make up our own mind as to whether Salvatore Mundi is by Leonardo or not and shows how the art world, greed and high finance collide.

Running time just over 90 minutes

https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/the-lost-leonardo