The Lost Leonardo
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 13, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 24, 2021
Koefoed’s stylishly made film takes its time, gives everyone their due, and leaves us with some profoundly interesting questions. Read full review
90
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganAug 12, 2021
The Lost Leonardo is one of those rare documentaries in which almost everyone involved volunteers their loose-lipped testimony, seemingly unconcerned as to the dubious light in which it may place them, and Koefoed turns it in at a snappy 96 minutes with all the bells and whistles of a doc crowd-pleaser. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 12, 2021
The Lost Leonardo is the first art-world documentary I’ve seen that captures what art becomes once it goes through the looking glass of greed: not just a commodity, but a way of transferring and manipulating power. It’s enough to make the Mona Lisa stop smiling. Read full review
90
Film ThreatBobby LePireJun 19, 2021
The Lost Leonardo tells the tale of the most scrutinized painting of all time in fascinating, exhaustive detail. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnnabel AguiarAug 17, 2021
The ultimate strength of The Lost Leonardo is its inspection of how society reveres and seeks out capital, the real driving force behind the pushes and pulls acted upon the Salvator Mundi. Read full review
83
The PlaylistAsher LubertoAug 22, 2021
There’s an enigma here. If we believe anyone in The Lost Leonardo, we believe someone who is only here to cover their tracks. Koefoed knows this and plays up the mystery with compelling results. Read full review
83
The Film StageArtemis LinJun 27, 2021
As thrilling and fun to watch as any fictional crime narrative, The Lost Leonardo is also a straightforward and unflinching indictment of the way power is brokered in our modern-day society—behind the scenes, out of reach, under the veneer of beauty and esteem. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellSep 11, 2021
The Lost Leonardo is about obsession, ego, power and greed. For almost all of the film’s characters, Salvator Mundi represents nothing more than opportunity. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 10, 2021
As with all documentaries about art, we are left uneasily wondering if the galleries of the world are full of “wrong attributions” or straight-up fakes. Read full review
80
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 12, 2021
As this film amply demonstrates, in the highest realms of commerce, wielding power is paramount. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 12, 2021
It’s a dizzying tale. And whether or not you believe “Salvator Mundi” to be a real Leonardo, it’s ultimately a disgusting one. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiSep 2, 2021
While some of the re-creations of clandestine meetings and shots of faceless men transporting the painting can be a bit cloak-and-dagger cheesy, that’s the only stumble in a film that tells a strange tale populated by a cast of eccentric and dangerous characters. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 31, 2021
Obscene wealth, the gauche, unsophisticated rich, “experts” with agendas, “free port” storage and insane amounts of money float by under the unblinking gaze of an Italo-European Jesus, “Salvator Mundi” but still “not even a good painting.” Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 26, 2021
Really, The Lost Leonardo is a detective story. Like any good detective story, it’s also a morality tale. Or maybe immorality tale better describes these goings on. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 26, 2021
Whatever the experts say, any viewer can observe the large gap between the damaged original and the perfect restoration. Perhaps the only definitive thing one can say about the most expensive painting in the world is that, regardless of who painted it in the 16th century, it is a creature of the 21st. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 11, 2021
If this arresting documentary is too agog at its own story to intricately reckon with how 21st century geopolitics and technology have further perverted the relationship between art and commerce — if it stops short of a post-credits scene where Samuel L. Jackson shows up to threaten us with the imminent rise of NFTs — the film nevertheless makes a strong case that some art is truly timeless. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiJun 14, 2021
The Lost Leonardo deals less with absolutes than fungible notions of perception and power. Read full review
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