A retired French doctor has discovered a long-lost, rare sketch by the Italian Renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci, according to a French auction house.
The drawing discovered is of Saint Sebastian and was presented to Paris' Tajan auction house in March by a private family. However, it was recently authenticated by several experts who agreed that the drawing indeed was one of the sketches by the Renaissance master painter. Reports state that it was also recently checked and authenticated by a curator from Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York, according to the New York Times.
After the painting was also reviewed by the world-renowned Leonardo expert and Met's Italian and Spanish drawings curator, Dr Carmen C Bambach, the museum said that the finding of the new art piece is an "exciting new discovery".
"This is an exciting new discovery of an authentic double-sided sheet by the master (1452-1519), representing on the recto the full figure of the martyred Saint Sebastian tied to a tree in a landscape, and on the verso, notes and diagrams about light and shadow, which relate to Leonardo's study of optics," the statement read.
Reports state that the drawing was presented to the director of Old Master pictures at Tajan, Thaddée Prate, by a retired doctor, along with 14 other unframed drawings, which were collected by the doctor's father. The auction house has valued the drawing at around $15.8 million.
"I had a sense that it was an interesting 16th-century drawing that required more work," Prate told NYT. After examining the sketch, which measures 7.5 inches by 5 inches, Prate sought a second opinion from an independent dealer and adviser in old master drawings, Patrick de Bayser.
Bayer then noticed that the sketch was made by a left-handed artist and they found that there were two smaller sketches made at the back of the paper and there were some additional notes too, which were written from right to left. Leonardo was a left-handed painter and was known to write notes in a similar fashion.
According to a Tajan spokesperson, Leonardo's Saint Sebastian drawing will be auctioned off in the month of June next year, FoxNews reported.
