The best thriller of the last year tells a story of the century and hardly anyone has seen it

In the brilliant production The Lost Leonardo a mysterious painting throws the entire world into turmoil. What’s special about it: Strictly speaking, it’s a documentary that feels like the best thriller of the last year due to the most improbable art history ever.

The thriller insider tip deals with the biggest art question of our time

In 2005, an uncatalogued painting was discovered by an art dealer. Too many resemblances to clearly assignable paintings by the artistic genius Leonardo Da Vinci cause a lot of question marks. That was the beginning of one unique story in the art world.

After all, you don’t do one every day supposed discovery of the most influential artist in history.

Over the years, to this day, the big question has been: Is it a real Da Vinci?, a copy or even a fake? A hotly contested discussion among art historians, Da Vinci experts and curators follows. Not even investigative journalists, the CIA, and an FBI art crimes branch have been able to resolve the issue.

In the trailer you get an impression of the extent of the find

The Lost Leonardo also casts a spell over art laypeople like me

Unless it’s a Dan Brown film adaptation with Tom Hanks strolling around the Louvre, discovering mysterious symbols and solving mysteries after mysteries, most would find the world of great art paintings rather dry. The documentary filmmaker Andreas Koefoed proves the opposite in the dense thriller.

Rarely has a story about an art object been staged so perfectly – not least because of the balanced balance between suspenseful atmosphere and historical reproductionwhat actually happened.

But the best is yet to come: Since we don’t need any previous knowledge, it’s also the surprise effect that sticks. As a layman, it caught me cold. At no point did I know where the real story was going. Half the world trip of the painting was unpredictable for me.

Fortunately, Koefoed does without too much theatrical drama and lets the story of the century speak for itself. The documentation is not a minute too long. On the contrary. the 90 minutes flies by.

The people who speak up make the documentary unique: It’s all staged. In an interview I was able to conduct with Andras Koefoed, I asked him about it. How did he get people to unpack?

I’m not even a journalist, I’m “only” a Danish director and my goal was actually to tell this great story. When people have the opportunity to bring some light into the darknessthen you might go into an interview with a different motivation. The docu-thriller mixes mystery with a perverted art market

The authentic re-enactment of the events further enhances the film experience. The Lost Leonardo looks far back in history, but also has a lot to tell about today. Of the current art market, the alienation of art and political power relations are taken apart.

The documentary thriller does not come along as a pure history lesson, but integrates areas such as economics and politics. Towards the end, Koefoed confronts us with highly relevant questions:

What kind of world do we live in, in which Art objects can be purchased for hundreds of millions and then only end up in vaults?

To this day is not 100% proven, whether it is a genuine Da Vinci or not. It all depends who you ask

Since the story of the century extends to the present day and is far from over, it comes up at all times noticeable spark of mystery a. Many thrillers can learn a lesson from this thrill.

There are even more film tips for streaming in the Moviepilot podcast

The streaming services released numerous film originals again in 2022. Which of them the best of the year are, you will find out in the new episode of Streamgetüre.

In the podcast we go through the favorites and justify our choice – of course without spoilers. At the end we also give our top 5 lists again if you want to reserve a title.

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