newsmakers

newsmakers

London museum to show lost Leonardo

london

An oil painting recently authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci will be on display at the National Gallery in the fall as part of a larger exhibition on the Renaissance artist, the London museum said Monday.

“Salvator Mundi,” which dates to around 1500, depicts a half-length figure of Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other holding an orb.

The National Gallery said in a statement Monday that the work was shown to its director, curator and other art scholars after undergoing conservation that was completed in 2010.

“We felt that it would be of great interest to include it in the exhibition as a new discovery,” the museum said, adding that its curator, Luke Syson, “is cataloging the picture as by Leonardo da Vinci, and this is how the picture will be presented in the exhibition.”

The painting will be included in an exhibition titled “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter of the Court of Milan,” from Nov. 9 to Feb. 5, 2012. “This will obviously be the moment to test this important new attribution by direct comparison with works universally accepted as Leonardo’s,” the museum said.

Atty: Man can’t recall theater incident

NEW YORK

The attorney for a man charged with smashing glass doors and breaking into the New York City theater where David Letterman tapes his television show says the man was drunk and doesn’t recall the incident.

James Whittemore was arraigned Monday on burglary and criminal-mischief charges. His lawyer says the 22-year-old “certainly didn’t plan this” and doesn’t even remember how he got to the Ed Sullivan Theater early Sunday.

A criminal-court complaint says Whittemore used a metal stanchion to break several of the theater’s glass doors. They say he did about $5,000 worth of damage at the closed theater. The complaint says pictures, fans, phones and printers were among other items damaged.

CBS and production company Worldwide Pants said the “Late Show” set wasn’t harmed.

Big audience for Dugard interview

NEW YORK

The story of a California woman kidnapped and held prisoner by a sex offender for 18 years has proved compelling for television viewers.

The Nielsen Co. says 14.8 million people watched ABC’s Diane Sawyer interview Jaycee Dugard in a two-hour special Sunday. Dugard, who was 11 when she was kidnapped and is now 31, has a memoir about her experience being published today.

The audience was more than triple the number of people who watched a couple of drama reruns on ABC the previous Sunday night. It was the most-watched summertime newsmagazine since a 2004 episode of “60 Minutes.”

It also was the most-watched Sunday night program on ABC, not including sports, since the Academy Awards in February.

Associated Press