Leonardo da Vinci completed the painting “The Beautiful Princess.” Five centuries later, the portrait, unknown to its author, was auctioned in 1998 for $18,000 at Christie’s in Manhattan, New York. It sold for $21,850. Collector Peter Silvermann was unable to secure the work, which he believed might be a genuine Leonardo. Then, nine years later, in 2007, Peter Silvermann saw the painting again at Kate Ganz’s art gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and managed to purchase it for approximately the same price as the auction. An incredible, detailed, and lengthy effort would follow to demonstrate that it was indeed a genuine work by Leonardo da Vinci. The work involved detective work, technical work, history, and relational work. But the definitive proof would come from the fact that one edge of the painting (painted on velvet) was poorly cut, with several visible pinholes. The painting was therefore likely part of a bound volume, from which it was cut. The volume, which commemorates the wedding of Bianca Sforza, was traced to the National Library in Warsaw in 2010, and the page edge matches exactly, as do three of the five punch holes (the other two are likely from a later binding). The painting was completed by Leonardo in 1496.
