Mystery of a Masterpiece (25 Jan. 2012)

Director:

David Murdock

Writer:

David Murdock

Stars:

Peter Silverman, Giammarco Cappuzzo, Christophe Champod

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Peter Silverman	...	Himself - Art Collector
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Giammarco Cappuzzo	...	Himself - Art Specialist
Christophe Champod	...	Himself - Université de Lausanne (as Professor Master of Fingerprint Identification)
Pascal Cotte	...	Himself - Scientific Director, Lumiere Technology
David Ekserdjian	...	Himself - University of Leicester
Cristina Geddo	...	Herself - Art Historian
Elisabetta Gnignera	...	Herself - Costume Historian
Martin Kemp	...	Himself - Oxford University (as One of the world's most influential Leonardo scholars)
Emmanuel Mairesse	...	Translation Voiceovers (voice)
Maricruz Castillo Merlo	...	Translation Voiceovers (voice)
Jay O. Sanders	...	Himself / Narrator
Sarah Simblett	...	Herself
Leo Stevenson	...	Himself - Artist & Historian of Forgery
James P. Wynne	...	Himself - Special Agent, FBI

Storyline

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 January 2012 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

National Geographic Television, WGBH Educational Foundation

User Reviews

Forensic art appreciation?

A fascinating real-life detective story about the quest to discover whether a portrait of a woman as intriguing as the Mona Lisa also was painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

Welcome to the rarefied world of almost invaluable art, a place in which "a forger's success depends on finding eager victims."

Here we meet Peter Silverman, the collector who spotted the anonymous Renaissance work in a New York art gallery, purchased it for $22,000, had it analyzed by the world's top experts, and recently rejected an offer to sell it for $80 million! That's because opinion is still mixed as to whether this is one of the dozen or so extant works by the Italian master.

I was surprised that a story about an artwork could be this intriguing.

The viewer is left with questions, including who, exactly, is this prescient and enigmatic buyer? Mr. Silverman is last pictured dining by himself in an elegant locale. The mystery persists...