En av de største utstillinger i sitt slag om Leonardo da Vinci åpnet sist uke i Kelberg-basilikaen i Brussel, verdens 5. største kirkebygg. I sentrum står et maleri som påstås å være et ukjent maleri av Leonardo og som forestiller Maria Magdalena. Det ble funnet så sent som i 1929. Hvis det er en ekte Leonardo er det en sensasjon.

Francois Xavier Remon, organizer, said, «We have two of Leonardo Da Vinci’s original works: ‘The virgin of the rocks’ – of which there are three versions – we have one of them. And the other work by Leonardo Da Vinci is ‘Mary Magdalene’. It is a work which re-surfaced in 1929, very recently. It’s attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci and it is said that it is Mary Magdalene.

For the moment the Professor Carlo Pedretti is studying the issue in order to find out if it really is Mary Magdalene, if it really is a Leonard Da Vinci. But, historically, I believe it really is Mary Magdalene and it really from Leonardo Da Vinci’s oil paints.»

Pedretti is the director of the «Armand Hammer» Center in Los Angeles as well as an international specialist in Leonardo’s works of art. He is writing a book on the Mary Magdalene panel and thinks Leonardo painted it together with Italian artist Giovannni Pietro Rizzoli, also known as Gianpietrino.