The Last Leonardo: The Secret Life of the World's Most Expensive Painting

500 years after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci, Ben Lewis considers the unrivalled legacy of his art through an original biography of the ‘Salvator Mundi’ (Saviour of the World) – the lost Da Vinci painting. In 2017, Leonardo Da Vinci’s small oil painting, the Salvator Mundi entered global popular consciousness with its record-breaking 450m sale in 2017. The Salvator is, in the words of its discoverer, the rarest thing on the planet by the greatest human being who ever lived.’ Only re-attributed to Leonardo in 2011, as the last one that will be discovered and sold, it is widely said to be the Last Leonardo’. In this stunning mix of biography, art history, history and thriller that goes deep into the story of this astonishing picture, not to mention the dealings of the contemporary art world, Ben Lewis writes a truly original and gripping narrative history. This book forensically retraces the history of the Salvator Mundi. The painting is a prism through which we can understand the highs and lows of the art world, experiencing the passions that drove men and women to own this work, as well as the philistinism that led them to almost destroy and lose it; through which we can track the vicissitudes of the highly secretive art market, across five centuries and the intrinsic link between art and the social and political system it inhabits. This story is an opportunity to tell a twisting tale of geniuses and gangsters, double-crossing and disappearances where we’re never quite certain what to believe. The Last Leonardo is an adventure story about art historians and a work of art. It is a book about a search for lost treasure, for something with a totemic power, that existed, until recently, only in myth and legend. 500 years after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci, Ben Lewis considers the unrivalled legacy of his art through an original biography of the `Salvator Mundi' (Saviour of the World) - the lost Da Vinci painting. In 2017, Leonardo Da Vinci's small oil painting, the Salvator Mundi entered global popular consciousness with its record-breaking $450m sale in 2017. The Salvator is, in the words of its discoverer, `the rarest thing on the planet by the greatest human being who ever lived.' Only re-attributed to Leonardo in 2011, as the last one that will be discovered and sold, it is widely said to be `the Last Leonardo'. In this stunning mix of biography, art history, history and thriller that goes deep into the story of this astonishing picture, not to mention the shady dealings of the contemporary art world, Ben Lewis writes a truly original and gripping narrative history. This book forensically retraces the history of the Salvator Mundi, uncovering a very different narrative from the carefully edited, sanitised and sometimes spurious one presented by the dealers and connoisseurs, who marketed and sold it. The real painting is a prism through which we can understand the highs and lows of the art world, experiencing the passions that drove men and women to own this work, as well as the philistinism that led them to almost destroy and lose it; through which we can track the vicissitudes of the highly secretive and unregulated art market, across five centuries and the intrinsic link between art and the social and political system it inhabits. This story is an opportunity to tell a twisting tale of geniuses and gangsters, double-crossing, disappearances and sometimes dubious attributions, where we're never quite certain what to believe. The Last Leonardo is an adventure story about art historians and a work of art. It is a book about a search for lost treasure, for something with a totemic power, that existed, until recently, only in myth and legend In 2017 the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction for $450m. But is it a real da Vinci? In a thrilling narrative built on formidable research, Ben Lewis tracks the extraordinary journey of a masterpiece lost and found, lied and fought over across the centuries. In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci's small oil painting, the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction for $450m. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as saviour of the world is 'the rarest thing on the planet by the greatest human being who ever lived'. Its dazzling 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 first half of the 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. Lewis takes us to Leonardo's studio in Renaissance Italy; to the court of Charles I and the English Civil War; to Holland, Moscow and Louisiana; 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 five centuries. It is a twisting tale of geniuses and oligarchs, double-crossings and disappearances, where 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.