“Se non è vero, è ben trovato” is an Italian saying with an application to rare paintings. The ‘Salvator Mundi’ devotional image of Christ holding the orb of the world is certainly ‘well found’ if not exactly ‘true’. In 2005 this picture was bought at auction for $US 1175. It was resold in 2017 for $US 450 million. How?
About our speaker:
Sergio was born in Trieste, Italy on 14th February 1946. He migrated to Australia with his family and settled in Adelaide in 1955. He has been educated in Modern and Classical languages at universities in Australia and overseas. He has been a Foreign Service Officer, Chief of Staff for two Federal Cabinet Ministers and the Founding Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum. He has taught Classical and Modern languages as well as English Language and Literature at schools and universities in Hong Kong, Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide. Sergio has been a Guide at the National Gallery of Australia since 2010, and is one of the Dante Alighieri Society of Canberra’s language teachers.
