The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting
Language: English
Published by Ballantine Books, 2019
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: Dream Books Co., Denver, CO, U.S.A.Dream Books Co.
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Condition: Used - Good
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Gently used with minimal wear on the corners and cover. A few pages may contain light highlighting or writing, but the text remains fully legible. Dust jacket may be missing, and supplemental materials like CDs or codes may not be included. May be ex-library with library markings. Ships promptly.
Seller Inventory # DBV.1984819259.G
- Title
- The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting
- Author
- Lewis, Ben
- Publisher
- Ballantine Books
- Publication year
- 2019
- Condition
- good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1984819259
- ISBN 13
- 9781984819253
In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci's small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is "the rarest thing on the planet." Its $450 million sale 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 early 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. Ben Lewis takes us to Leonardo's studio in Renaissance Italy; to the court of Charles I and the English Civil War; to Amsterdam, Moscow, and New Orleans; 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 six centuries. It is a twisting tale of geniuses and oligarchs, double-crossings and disappearances, in which 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.
Praise for The Last Leonardo
"The story of the world's most expensive painting is narrated with great gusto and formidably researched detail in Ben Lewis's book. . . . Lewis's probings of the Salvator's backstory raise questions about its historical status and visibility, and these lead in turn to the fundamental question of whether the painting is really an autograph work by Leonardo."--Charles Nicholl, The Guardian
"As the art historian and critic Ben Lewis shows in his forensically detailed and gripping investigation into the history, discovery and sales of the painting, establishing the truth is like nailing down jelly."-- Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times
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Dream Books Co.
Denver, CO, U.S.A.
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