A new film tells the murky tale of the world’s priciest painting that wasn’t, then was, then was (perhaps) a Leonardo da Vinci

“Jesus is not an easy sell, but for whatever reason the picture attracts my attention.” This is Alexander Parish, and he is recalling his first reaction to a reproduction of an anonymous Renaissance painting in the catalogue of a New Orleans gallery in 2005. On a hunch, he persuaded fellow dealer Robert Simon to go halves with him to buy it. The price was $1,175 (£855).

The tale of how this battered, badly overpainted picture became the most expensive artwork in history just over a decade later has more twists and turns than a switchback mountain road. It’s told to dizzying effect in a new documentary, The Lost Leonardo, by Danish director Andreas Koefoed (in cinemas from 10 September): because it is the Salvator Mundi, sold for $450 million (£327.5m) at Christie’s in New York in November 2017.

The story starts with Parish and Simon having the panel trucked by UPS to New York, where in its overpainted state it is turned down by Christie’s. They enlist the help of leading picture conservator Dianne Modestini, who removes the overpainting and begins to retouch passages where the panel has cracked. When she reaches the mouth, she has an epiphany: the treatment is so close to the Mona Lisa’s, she becomes convinced the painting is by Leonardo.
Three years into what would become a six-year conservation process, Parish and Simon get a lucky break. The National Gallery in London is planning a Leonardo show and its curator, Luke Syson, has the painting brought over for inspection by a panel of five Leonardo experts. No minutes are taken at the informal meeting, but it is understood that a consensus has been reached that the picture is indeed by Leonardo. Although museums normally don’t exhibit works that are on the market, the National Gallery includes the painting in its 2011 show.