[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Charlotte Eyerman, Global Head of the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. And it's my great honor and pleasure to be here with you at TEFAF. Doctor Robert Simon, who is going to share adventures and discoveries in Old Masters with us.
One of the things you're most famous for probably is your discovery of the Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, the painting by Leonardo da Vinci that sold at Christie's at auction on November 15, 2017. So, Robert, you discovered it. How did that come about? You were in Louisiana?
Actually, I wasn't in Louisiana, but I did receive the auction catalog from this secondary auction house in New Orleans. One of the things that I do as an Old Master dealer is look in odd places for paintings, particularly in the United States since I'm based there. And the kind of the skill set that I've developed over the years in recognizing authorship of artists, particularly Italian paintings, one of my specialties, is something not relying on the big auction houses, like Sotheby's and Christie's, where things generally are very well cataloged, but in smaller auction houses where the expertise is.
Did you know it was a Leonardo when you saw it in the auction catalog or when you finally saw it?
I wish I could say that at the moment I saw it I thought it was that. I'm not-- that's a kind of-- one has to protect oneself from being a dreamer. And when I saw the painting, I thought it might well be a good painting by one of Leonardo's close followers, but it took two years of my work as art historian and writing, tracing provenance, and working in collaboration with conservators who were able to remove what was a lot of overpaint on the painting, later painting. And that was two years when the awful discovery, awful because it was very frightening, when I realized this was by Leonardo and it was the lost original.
Did you do all of your own provenance research or did you employ assistants, or your gallery staff, or special experts?
It was pretty much me alone, partly because the painting was a great secret. I first showed it to Nicholas Penny, Sir Nicholas Penny who was then the curator of paintings-- sculpture rather at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He recognized it and believed it was by Leonardo.
There are arguably between 14 and 18 paintings by Leonardo in the world. And it's once been said that finding a painting by Leonardo is something like finding discovering a new planet, and it's kind of on that scale in the art world. And I think the one thing about Leonardo is that it goes beyond the art world because he was a universal genius and the painting was just one aspect of it. That's something that made this all the more significant.
Well, it's an amazing discovery.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Charlotte Eyerman, Global Head of the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. And it's my great honor and pleasure to be here with you at TEFAF. Doctor Robert Simon, who is going to share adventures and discoveries in Old Masters with us.
One of the things you're most famous for probably is your discovery of the Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, the painting by Leonardo da Vinci that sold at Christie's at auction on November 15, 2017. So, Robert, you discovered it. How did that come about? You were in Louisiana?
Actually, I wasn't in Louisiana, but I did receive the auction catalog from this secondary auction house in New Orleans. One of the things that I do as an Old Master dealer is look in odd places for paintings, particularly in the United States since I'm based there. And the kind of the skill set that I've developed over the years in recognizing authorship of artists, particularly Italian paintings, one of my specialties, is something not relying on the big auction houses, like Sotheby's and Christie's, where things generally are very well cataloged, but in smaller auction houses where the expertise is.
Did you know it was a Leonardo when you saw it in the auction catalog or when you finally saw it?
I wish I could say that at the moment I saw it I thought it was that. I'm not-- that's a kind of-- one has to protect oneself from being a dreamer. And when I saw the painting, I thought it might well be a good painting by one of Leonardo's close followers, but it took two years of my work as art historian and writing, tracing provenance, and working in collaboration with conservators who were able to remove what was a lot of overpaint on the painting, later painting. And that was two years when the awful discovery, awful because it was very frightening, when I realized this was by Leonardo and it was the lost original.
Did you do all of your own provenance research or did you employ assistants, or your gallery staff, or special experts?
It was pretty much me alone, partly because the painting was a great secret. I first showed it to Nicholas Penny, Sir Nicholas Penny who was then the curator of paintings-- sculpture rather at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He recognized it and believed it was by Leonardo.
There are arguably between 14 and 18 paintings by Leonardo in the world. And it's once been said that finding a painting by Leonardo is something like finding discovering a new planet, and it's kind of on that scale in the art world. And I think the one thing about Leonardo is that it goes beyond the art world because he was a universal genius and the painting was just one aspect of it. That's something that made this all the more significant.
Well, it's an amazing discovery.
