The American Leonardo da Vinci

The story of this painting starts in 1919 with the marriage of a car salesman from the midwest of the U.S. named Harry Hahn to a young Frenchwoman, Andree Lardoux. Miss Lardoux's godmother Louise Montaut, gave the painting to the couple as a wedding present. At the time, the painting was thought to be by Leonardo. Even so, the couple decided to sell it to the Kansas City Art Institute for at least $250,000. When a reporter from the New York World got wind of the transaction, he telephoned the notorious art dealer Joseph Duveen. It was one in the morning, and a sleepy Mr. Duveen answered the phone. When asked what he thought of the portrait, he instantly pronounced it a fake without ever having seen it, claiming that the picture "was a copy, where hundreds of these have been made and other Leonardo subjects and offered in the market as genuine." His hasty response set off a much-publicized legal battle between the Hahns and the Duveen. There is a book about it called " The American Leonardo" that was published last year and chronicles the history of the painting. The case went to trial in New York Supreme Court on February 6th 1929 and according to " The American Leonardo" it was a media zoo, with reporters and members of the public lining up each morning to get into the courtroom. On Mr. Duveen's side, were experts who argued that the painting was a fake, while the dealer himself said that his opinion was formed by "his study of all the great pictures of the world". The Hahns tried to prove their point with their own battery of experts and with what scientific tools were available at the time. But the case ended in a hung jury, and Mr. Duveen finally settled out of court, paying the Hahns $60,000 in damages. Last year, the can of worms was opened once again, when the Hahn's daughter, Jacqueline, curious about the painting that has been so much part of her family history, took it to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles so conservators and experts could examine it. The curator at the Getty Museum Scott J. Schaefer said that the painting he had read so much about and thought to be Lucrezia Crivelli, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan- was not what he expected when it was unwrapped. He thought it was much better than what they thought it would be and he said it wasn't just some copy of a painting but a skillful interpretation. Pigment analysis also revealed the use of lead-tin yellow, a colour employed in the 17th century that re-appeared again only in the 19th century. These findings suggest that the painting called : " La Belle Ferroniere " was probably painted before 1750. An expert Mr. Watchter informed the curator of the Getty Museum that after that date, it would have been hard to believe that lead-tin yellow would have been used: " because the formula for it was lost " When learning about the pigments, Mr. Scott J. Schaefer, curator of the Getty Museum said: "Suddenly I had to re-think things. It has been painted earlier than I imagined" still, he said, the mystery of the portrait only adds to its romance. " It's still a conundrum"