JESUS LEAPT

In 2017, the Salvator Mundi fetched US$450 million at auction, making it the most expensive painting ever. It was the fourth time the painting ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci had been sold in 12 years. In 2005, its price tag was a mere US$1175. But back then, it wasn’t a piece by an old master. How it became one – and whether it actually is one – is the subject of The Lost Leonardo, a riveting documentary by Danish director Andreas Koefoed.

Some people, such as conservator Dianne Modestini, who worked on its restoration and features heavily in the doco, think the ethereal portrait of Jesus – “the Saviour of the World” – is definitely the work of da Vinci.

Others consider it a fake and think that experts and institutions such as the UK’s National Gallery – which declared it a lost masterpiece when it put it on show in 2011 – have let wishful thinking, confirmation bias or plain greed get the better