Early in “The Lost Leonardo,” there is one of those whoa! moments that can make you think that no movie is more gripping than a great documentary mystery about the art world.
In 2005, two dealers stumble onto an obscure painting of Jesus Christ, his hand raised in a sacramental gesture, that’s being offered at auction in New Orleans.
They think the painting has…something.
So they team up to purchase it for $1,175.
Much of the canvas has been painted over, and after they bring it to the noted art restorer Dianne Modestini, she goes to work on it, removing layers of varnish and overpainting to uncover an image that is striking but damaged, dotted with white blotches and streaks, like emanations of a lightning flash.
But as she starts the process of restoration, filling in the colors, teasing out a buried layer that shows the thumb in a different
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