Leonardo portrait on rare display in Italy

TURIN - Agence France-Presse

AFP photo

A rare self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci that has only been publicly shown twice and is insured for 50 million euros has gone on display in the city of Turin in northern Italy.

The self-portrait of the Renaissance master as an elderly man is kept in the Royal Library in Turin where it has only gone on show in 1929 and 2006. It is being displayed under special shock-proof glass case filled with sensors.

It will be on show until January 29 at the Reggia di Venaria, a 17th-century former royal residence near Turin as part of an exhibition entitled “Leonardo: The Genius and the Myth” including 30 drawings and writings about the work.

“It’s a sort of introduction to the major exhibition that will be held in Amboise in central France from May 2, 2019 for the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo,” said the exhibition’s curator, Carlo Pedretti.

Da Vinci lived and died in a manor house in Amboise in 1519