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Bella Principessa may be a new found Leonardo da Vinci portrait
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Bella Principessa a da Vinci?
The art world was rocked recently as news that quite possibly a new found da Vinci had surfaced. What was described as a ghost of a left hand fingerprint on the portrait is believed to very similar to that of the one found on a Leonardo da Vinci work in the Vatican collection.
Canadian art collector, Peter Silverman purchased the painting, titled, "Profile of the Bella Principessa" at about $19,000 for a private collector. It was purchased before for a price close to that by New York art dealer, Kate Ganz at Christies auction house in the 1990s.
If it's proven to be a da Vinci, it would be the first new major find of the artist's work in over one hundred years. One estimate put it at 100 million dollars, but I'm a firm believer that the auction market sets the price for such works, and no one will know what it's worth until it hits the block again.
The work is being examined by Peter Paul Biro, who is comparing pictures of the painting to Leonardo's work in the Vatican.
Da Vinci used his hands freely in his painting, thus his fingerprints are found on many of this portraits. The fingerprint is no doubt lighting up the art world as it means there is high chance of indisputable verification.
This story is great on so many levels, and it's why I'm in the business I'm in, for the treasures that are out there. You can research antiques and fine art from now until the end of time, and still only scratch the surface. No one can know everything, and the experts are often the ones fooled.
If this work is indeed a da Vinci, we can only guess at all the well known art experts who's hands this passed through without every realizing what they had. It got by several dealers who personally owned it at one time, the auctioneer at Christie's who sold it for about $19,000, as well as the room full of buyers at that auction.
What does it all mean? I means I'll be on the "yard sale trail" early this weekend! Oh, I know, the odds that I'll ever find something of this magnitude are slim to none. But treasures come in different sizes, shapes and mediums. Many is the time I've found an old chest of drawers for $25 to turn around and sell it for $200 or $300. I've loaded up my van with suitcases of linens, antique buttons and Baseball cards that paid the mortgage that month, and for me, that's good enough!
What I'm up to:
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