Portrait attributed to Leonardo seized in Switzerland
Vienna, February 11, AZERTAC
Swiss authorities have seized a portrait of a woman attributed to Leonardo da Vinci from a private bank vault to return it to Italy, where police will seek to determine its ownership and art historians its authenticity.
The portrait of a Renaissance-era noblewoman, Isabella D'Este, first emerged in 2013 in Switzerland, tantalizing Leonardo aficionados with a tale of a lost work by the Renaissance master. Italian authorities had more prosaic concerns: Whether the painting had been removed from Italy without authorization.
The seizure Monday, and the painting's imminent return to Italy, is expected to renew the debate about its authenticity.
A drawing of D'Este by Leonardo is in the Louvre, and Corriere cited correspondence from D'Este entreating Leonardo to follow up with a proper painting. For centuries, experts were unsure whether Leonardo had ever obliged her.
In 2013, Italian authorities learned that a lawyer had the mandate to negotiate to sell the painting for 95 million euros ($107 million). The work was then already in Switzerland, allegedly without proper export licenses but when Italy asked for its return, Swiss authorities couldn't find it.
It wasn't located again until last summer, in a private Swiss bank vault in the Italian-speaking Ticino canton, during a separate investigation into financial. By then, negotiations were underway to sell it for 120 million euros, police said.
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