Julianne Moore will star and executive produce a television series inspired by the 2021 documentary, The Lost Leonardo, according to Deadline. The series will dramatize the rediscovery and subsequent controversies surrounding Salvator Mundi, a Renaissance-era painting now attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. This work, depicting Christ, became the world’s most expensive painting after it sold at Christie’s in New York for $450 million in 2017. The final buyer has never been officially identified. However, several reports claim it was Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The upcoming series will explore the myriad narrative twists and turns that surrounded the painting before and after the sale. Moore will play Dianne Modestini, the renowned art restorer who was pivotal in the painting’s restoration and authentication. Modestini was the first to identify characteristics that would hint at its authenticity as a work by da Vinci, comparing its technique to that of the Mona Lisa (1503). Yet the painting’s provenance and Modestini’s restoration ignited years of speculation and controversy.
Art dealers Alexander Parrish and Robert Simon initially came across the work at an estate sale in New Orleans, purchasing it for around $1,500 and identifying it as “after Leanardo.” The duo hired Modestini to restore the painting, which was significantly damaged at the time, sparking a controversy, where critics attributed most of the painting’s final work to Modestini. In responser, the art restorer retorted: “I can’t paint like Leonardo,”in the original documentary.
This series is in production with Studiocanal, the Picture Company, Entertainment 360, and Requa and Ficara’s Zaftig Films.
