Buckingham Palace is staging the largest show of the master’s drawings in 65 years

Buckingham Palace is staging the largest show of the master’s drawings in 65 years

The dispute putters on. Is Salvator Mundi, sold in 2017 for $450.3m as one of only 20 known paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, genuinely by the master? Or is it by a follower, or perhaps a combination of the two? And how much of its present appearance is the work of the American conservator who spent six years restoring it? Why won’t it be included in the Paris Louvre’s autumn blockbuster marking 500 years since Leonardo’s death? And why has the Louvre Abu Dhabi, to which it has reputedly been lent by its unnamed owner, not put it on display?

When a picture changes hands for an obscene sum of money, the interest in it can become unhealthy. Better to put Salvator Mundi out of our minds and focus instead on the undisputed Leonardo: the Leonardo of the drawings and notebooks about whose authorship there can be no doubt.

The place to find the true Leonardo is in his drawings, and there’s never been a better chance than now. The Royal Collection, which owns 600 of them, has put more than 200 on show at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, in “Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing” (until 13 October), the largest Leonardo exhibition for 65 years. All aspects of his work, public and private, are covered.

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