We developed a series of animations for each of the ‘lenses’, using the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci as a leitmotif. We use the many copies and rip offs of the Mona Lisa for the Market introduction, or the way that the tourists photograph the Mona Lisa in the Louvre for the Humanities perspective. The general introduction video uses the ‘American Leonardo’, La Belle Ferronnière, and breaks it up into components to introduce the various experts typographically. This typographic treatment is also used to create small ‘bumpers’ that can be overlayed on video footage. 

Authentication in Art comprises a group of art world professionals who joined together to create a forum that can act to catalyze and promote best practices in art authentication. It ties together a worldwide art community including collectors, art historians, art market proffesionals, financial institutions, legal advisers, trust & estate practitioners and other stakeholders in the art industry. Panartis is a start up that is creating the world’s largest integrated collection of images and documents from global public and private collections, libraries, and archives.

The American Leonardo, or the Hahn vs Duveen case (1929)

Joseph Duveen was a British art dealer who was instrumental in expanding the market for Renaissance paintings. As a result of Duveen’s efforts, the great Italian, Dutch, French, and English masters became widely represented in American museums.

In 1921 Duveen was sued by Andrée Hahn for $500,000 following his comments questioning the authenticity of a version of the da Vinci painting La Belle Ferronnière that she owned and had planned to sell. The case raised issues about how attributions are made and how they affect the status and value of paintings. The case of Hahn vs Duveen went to trial in New York and attracted a large audience.

The court case took seven years to come to trial and after the first jury returned an open verdict, Duveen agreed to settle, paying Hahn $60,000 plus court costs. The status of the picture remains ambiguous.

The historian John Brewer, who is also featured as an expert in the conference, has examined the case in his publication The American Leonardo: A Tale of Obsession, Art and Money. He writes:

“The case of the American Leonardo puts the question of attribution, expert views and public acceptance in high relief. It also reveals the big trends and microcosm workings of the twentieth-century art world, enabling us to see what is often hidden and to understand what often goes unanalysed. The extraordinary value (both economic and cultural) placed on major works of art and the arenas in which this value is negotiated make such artefacts ripe for manipulation.”