First Trailer for ‘The Lost Leonardo’ Doc About an Expensive Painting
by Alex Billington
July 9, 2021
Source: YouTube
“It’s not even a good painting!” Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled the first official trailer for a fascinating art documentary titled The Lost Leonardo, which was supposed to open last year but was delayed until this year. It’s now set to open in theaters in the US this August. The film examines the mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing. It was the most expensive painting ever sold, at $450 million, but is it actually authentic? “Unravelling the hidden agendas of the richest men and most powerful art institutions in the world, The Lost Leonardo reveals how vested interests in the Salvator Mundi are of such tremendous power that truth becomes secondary.” This looks like more than investigative documentary, with recreations and revelations about how greedy and insane the art market is. “It’s not just art history, it’s world politics.”
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Andreas Koefoed’s The Lost Leonardo, direct from YouTube:
The Lost Leonardo is the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. From the moment the painting is bought for $1175 at a shady New Orleans auction house, and the restorer discovers masterful Renaissance brush strokes under the heavy varnish of its cheap restoration, the Salvator Mundi’s fate is determined by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. As its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity: is this painting really by Leonardo da Vinci? The Lost Leonardo is directed by Danish filmmaker Andreas Koefoed, making his first narrative feature after directing doc films including To the End of the World, Ballroom Dancer, The Ghost of Piramida, The Arms Drop, and At Home in the World previously. The screenplay is written by Andreas Dalsgaard, Christian Kirk Muff, Andreas Koefoed, Mark Monroe, and Duska Zagorac. This just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. Sony Classics will release The Lost Leonardo in select US theaters on August 13th this summer.
