Lost da Vinci work on display

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Nine works by Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci will be displayed together at the National Gallery of the British Museum starting this week.

The exhibition, “Painter of the Court of Milan,” will also feature an oil painting recently authenticated as a work by da Vinci. “Salvator Mundi” (Savior of the World), which dates to around 1500, depicts a half-length figure of Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other holding an orb.

“Salvator Mundi” was believed to have been lost. It was first recorded in the art collection of King Charles I of England in 1649; in 1763, it was auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham. It next appeared in 1900, damaged from excessive paint overlay and its authorship unclear, when it was purchased by a British collector, Sir Frederick Cook. Cook’s descendants sold it at auction in 1958 for 45 pounds. In 2005, it was acquired by an American estate.

The exhibition will run

between Nov. 9 and Feb. 5, 2012