Sketch sells for £8.9m

“Authentication can bring riches, but it can also bring headaches for collectors”

Last Thursday, a drawing of a bear’s head by Leonardo da Vinci sold for almost £8.9m with Christie’s in London, setting a new record price for a drawing by the artist. The previous record of £8.1m, for a drawing of a horsein the early 1480s using a technique called silverpoint, where a stick of silver, rather like a proto-pencil, is carefully applied to a specially prepared piece of paper. But unlike a pencil, silverpoint doesn’t permit mistakes, so it requires a fine, delicate touch. Da Vinci learnt the technique while still in his youth from his mentor, Andrea del Verrocchio, himself a leading artist in Florence at the time. With it, da Vinci was able to undertake his famous detailed anatomical studies of the natural world.