Leonardo-Attributed Painting Mystifies Art Experts

One of the world's most controversial paintings, "La Belle Ferronnière," will go on the Sotheby's auction block in New York on January 28. Many viewers are wondering: Is she or isn't she?

A Leonardo, that is. 

Take a look and see what you think.

(Image: Sotheby's)

Her eyes and mouth suggest the almost equally mysterious Mona Lisa, but experts still aren't sure who painted the regal-looking woman, believed to be Lucrezia Crivelli, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan.

For ages, the painting was attributed without question to Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). On the night of June 17, 1920, however, controversy erupted. A news reporter, on deadline with a story about the impending sale of the painting for a huge sum, phoned prominent art critic Sir Joseph Duveen for a comment.

Duveen declared that the portrait was surely a fake.

Frenchwoman Andree Hahn, one of the painting's owners, sued Duveen for slander. The case went to the New York State Supreme Court, which voted in favor of Hahn and her husband. Duveen had to shell out $60,000 in damages to the couple.

But the painting's reputation was forever sullied.

According to Sotheby's, a recent scientific examination of the painting suggests that it was painted "before 1750" and by "someone using French materials." Could that someone have been Leonardo himself? 

Most experts now seem to think that's unlikely, although Sotheby's is presenting the painting as being by a "Follower of Leonardo da Vinci."

If you would like to see the painting in person, it will be exhibited at Sotheby’s Los Angeles office on the 13th of January and at Sotheby’s New York galleries beginning January 23.