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United Kingdom · 2021
1h 35m
Director Andreas Koefoed
Starring Georgina Adam, Warren Adelson, Evan Beard, Yves Bouvier
Genre Documentary, History
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Salvator Mundi, a supposed long-lost da Vinci masterpiece, is the most expensive painting ever sold. From the moment of its purchase from a New Orleans auction house, the painting has been thrown into the merciless world of fame, money, and power. But as its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity.
As thrilling and fun to watch as any fictional crime narrative, The Lost Leonardo is also a straightforward and unflinching indictment of the way power is brokered in our modern-day society—behind the scenes, out of reach, under the veneer of beauty and esteem.
The Lost Leonardo tells the tale of the most scrutinized painting of all time in fascinating, exhaustive detail.
Slant Magazine by Chris Barsanti
The Lost Leonardo deals less with absolutes than fungible notions of perception and power.
If this arresting documentary is too agog at its own story to intricately reckon with how 21st century geopolitics and technology have further perverted the relationship between art and commerce — if it stops short of a post-credits scene where Samuel L. Jackson shows up to threaten us with the imminent rise of NFTs — the film nevertheless makes a strong case that some art is truly timeless.
Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
The Lost Leonardo is one of those rare documentaries in which almost everyone involved volunteers their loose-lipped testimony, seemingly unconcerned as to the dubious light in which it may place them, and Koefoed turns it in at a snappy 96 minutes with all the bells and whistles of a doc crowd-pleaser.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
It’s a dizzying tale. And whether or not you believe “Salvator Mundi” to be a real Leonardo, it’s ultimately a disgusting one.
The Lost Leonardo is the first art-world documentary I’ve seen that captures what art becomes once it goes through the looking glass of greed: not just a commodity, but a way of transferring and manipulating power. It’s enough to make the Mona Lisa stop smiling.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
As this film amply demonstrates, in the highest realms of commerce, wielding power is paramount.
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