Forgery scandal over da Vinci`s La Bella Principessa

The British daily Independent reported on Monday the alleged forgery over La Bella Principessa (pictured), one of the masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci worth about 100 million pounds (50 million U.S. dollar). The news is drawing attention in Korea due to its similarity to the forgery scandal in 1991 surrounding the Portrait of a Beauty by the late painter Cheon Gyeong-ja.

In his recently published memoir "A Forger’s Tale," a British art forger named Shaun Greenhalgh (54) claimed that the La Bella Principessa was painted by himself, not by da Vinci. In the book, he explained that he completed the work in 1978 when he was staying in Lancashire, England, to draw portrait on a model named Sally, a young clerk with a braided hair who was working at a nearby supermarket.

Greenhalgh was arrested in 2006 on charge of forgery and put behind bars for five years where he wrote his memoir. He said he worked on an old council document for canvas to make it look authentic and painted it with charcoal from ancient trees.

The art circles in Britain, however, questioned his argument, citing the findings of a laboratory investigation over the past two years, which indicated that the controversial painting was painted at least 250 years ago.

dew@donga.com