DECEMBER, 2009

MONTREAL REVIEW | ART & MONEY

"The Bella Principessa"

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"Profile of the Bella Principessa" is one of the biggest art surprises in 2009. In 2007, the Canadian art collector Peter Silverman bought the painting from a New York art dealer, Kate Ganz, for about $ 19 000 on behalf of anonymous Swiss collector. In the time of its purchase in 2007 the "Bella Principessa" was considered as an eighteenth-century German painting from an unknown author, but Silverman was convinced that the work is older and even resembling Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings.

Experts from Lumiere Technology laboratory examined the painting earlier this year. They concluded that the "Bella Principessa" is Leonardo's drawing. The evidence they have found is a fingerprint on the canvas that is identical to the Leonardo's fingerprint on his painting "St. Jerome" in the Vatican. They also noticed that left-handed artist made the painting and the stylistic elements were very close to those of Leonardo. The carbon analysis of the canvas showed that it is dating from between 1440 and 1650.

Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal -based forensic art expert, said for the Associated Press that the painting is priceless. There are not so many Leonardo works and this canvas will cost perhaps 150 million dollars.

"Nothing that I have seen or read in the past two years has changed my mind, I do not believe that this drawing is by Leonardo da Vinci," said Kate Ganz for The Associated Press .

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