and for more on this absolutely astounding sale we are joined now by martin kemp he is a professor in the history of art at oxford university and a leading leonardo da vinci expert thanks so much for joining us. pleasure now you have actually seen this painting up close what would you say is so special about it and is it really worth the four hundred fifty million dollars that it fetched at auction. i would separate out these two things it's worth what someone is prepared to pay for it which is different from the question as to whether it's a great painting on art it is very extraordinary the line are those have a special presence i've seen mona lisa twice out of her throne and they have a kind of living presence which is very uncanny very extraordinary it's difficult for artists to do that rembrandt can do. your can do that at his best but they do have that extraordinary presence and lennart also in addition to that very strange psychological effect incorporates enormous amounts of knowledge into his works of art in a way in which the followers didn't i mean he understands arctic sea

earlier my colleague annita mcveigh spoke to martin kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art atis reaction when he heard the final auction price. i was just astonished. i thought it would struggle to reach its guarantee. christies put a guarantee on it saying we guarantee this picture will raise $100 million and i thought it was a bit of a struggle. i went to bed and thought i'd find out the next morning. by 2am, my phone was ringing, e—mails were binging and everything had gone crazy. it's quite astonishing when you think of the recent history of this painting and the fact that it sold forjust £45 in 1958? it was heavily overpainted at some point in its history, probably 17th and 18th century. it had become badly warped and somebody to restore it had planed off the areas that we re it had planed off the areas that were sticking up. conservation was very tough in those days and it was almost completely overpainted support you could see any picture after it was damaged and restored was no leonardo, that was underneath the overpainted. tell us about the work you did to verify that

martin kemp is an art history professor at oxford university and said that the work might not fetch theru ns we know he was sold at by a man who runs tax—free facilities for storing works of art. and he paid 15 million less for it, so if the price is between the two it will struggle to make 100, but we will see. it is being put in a celebrity modern picture, so they hope to boost it that way. it was incredibly badly damaged and heavily restored, but when it was all cleaned and tidied i think there is no doubt about it. what happened was at some point it got badly damaged. it was on a panel that sort of lifted and somebody has shaved off the bits lifted which was a hideous thing to do, then repainted over the top of it to make it look like a picture again. horrible things happen to pictures, they haven't the heart —— horrible things have happened to pictures in the past and they certainly have to this one. two dealers noticed it and thought it might be worth a punt, just to see what we have got here, and when they started cleaning it and when they started cleaning it and taking off this

it was sold at auction in new york, joining me from our oxford studio is martin kemp, emeritus professor what went through your mind. i wasjust astonished. i thought it would struggle to reach its guarantee. christies bid a guarantee on it saying we guarantee this picture will raise $100 million and i thought it was a bit of a struggle. i went to bed and thought ever find out the next morning. by 2am, my phone was ringing, e—mails were singing and everything had gone crazy. it's quite astonishing when you think of the recent history of this painting and the fact that it sold for just £45 this painting and the fact that it sold forjust £45 in 1958? yes. it was heavily over painted at some point in history. probably the 17th century, it had become badly warped. somebody restoring it had also plained off areas sticking up. conservation was very tough in those days. it was completely over painted. what you could say after it was damaged and restored, leonardo was damaged and restored, leonardo was underneath. and tell us about the world you did, to verify it was the world you did, to verify

definitely by leonardo, a few voices have been raised in dissent but all the main scholars as you heard martin kempeonardo painting. yes, it's damage that has been restored, but it is quite common for 500—year—old panels, they get damaged over the yea rs. panels, they get damaged over the years. bits of the painting, i'd say, are very well preserved. the right hand of christ raised in benediction is beautifully painted, the celestial orb he holds in his left hand is an incredible piece of painting, the inclusions, the... you can see into it, it's a rock crystal. leonardo is so exact the way he paints he's included all the inclusions inside, that's amazing. the face is the area most damaged over the years. but i think it's been restored very well. leonardo painted in this very painstaking technique, using very, very thin glazes, and took years to produce these works. i mean literally years to painta these works. i mean literally years to paint a painting like that. so those glazes have been damaged through cleaning over the years, you can't get those back, its true. you are seeing a pared down examp

martin luther king jr. holiday when the reagan administration was slow going with that idea as where a lot of republicans were slow it was more jack kemp. >> you also looked at the book for medical marijuana think people looking at new today they pitch would've looked at the freshman legislative. >> i think he reached the point where no doubt he started off as a rockefeller republican and he supported rockefeller in 1968. it evolved over time because they see liberals and it's not working. good intentions and good ideas but doesn't work practically in the governmental sense. so he evolves and the antiestablishment he stood up against the apartheid government he voted for the 85 civil rights act and got a lot of grief for the it was a pretty white district at that point. he this is where the image today we would not recognize it. >> that's partially why wrote the book. i think he would say yes i did those things why wouldn't i do those things. of course i be opposed to the communist government in nicaragua. >> this has a lot of history were talking before hand about how when donald trump met with but they put a note to jim right and dan