Unknown Leonardo to go on show at National Gallery

(ap)

The National Gallery is to exhibit a previously unknown oil painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. The 1513 painting, Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World), shows Christ with one hand raised to make a blessing and the other holding an orb.

The work will go on display as part of The National Gallery's exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter of the Court of Milan, which opens from 9 November.

The painting was once owned by King Charles I. It was bought by British collector Sir Frederick Cook in 1900, whose descendants sold it in 1958 for just £45. It eventually ended up in the hands of a US consortium of art dealers.

Conservators working on the painting, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, last year determined that it was originally created by Leonardo Da Vinci. It is estimated to be worth £120m.

The experts who helped to identify the work included the Milan-based Da Vinci expert Professor Pietro Marani, fellow Italian Maria Teresa Fiori and the Oxford University art professor Martin Kemp, who has studied the artist for the past 40 years.