Leonardo and his circle: some drawings housed in
collections in the United States

When presenting the catalogue The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and his Circle in America, Patricia Trutty-Coohill observes how, in recent years, sales of Leonardo�s drawings and the sums paid by Americans for them have been remarkable. The work was published in 1993, testifying to the inflation that struck the art market in the 80�s and the American appreciation for this fragile medium mentioning the 5.2 million dollars with which Armand Hammer bought the Leicester Codex. As the author points out, in the United States collecting Leonardo�s drawings is recent history (more than half of the fifteen drawings found in American collections was added after 1950) and during the last century Leonardo was held in great consideration as a scientist as well as an artist.  Eleven million dollars were paid in 1989 for the first two drawings in this section.

As is well known, the Leicester Codex, re-named Hammer, was bought by Bill Gates in 1994 carrying the auction bid from 10 to 30 million dollars in one fair swoop, paying more than one thousand, three hundred million lire per sheet (there are 36 sheets each measuring 29 x 22cm.) Trutty-Coohill believes there were other factors besides inflation but it is interesting to see what Bill Gates, who is firmly convinced in the idea of Leonardo the scientist, had to say. � Surprisingly little is known about Leonardo, outside of what is found is these scientific � notebooks�. [�] Leonardo speculates on hydraulics, cosmology, astronomy, geology, palaeontology and other topics.� And again:� Leonardo was one of the most amazing people who ever lived. He was a genius in more fields than any other scientist of any age and he was an astonishing painter and sculptor. His �notebooks were hundreds of years ahead of their time. They anticipated submarines, helicopters and other modern inventions.�

Leonardo e la sua cerchia: alcuni disegni presenti nelle
collezioni statunitensi.

  Presentando il catalogo The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and his Circle in America, Patricia Trutty-Coohill osserva quanto, negli ultimi anni, siano state fenomenali le vendite di disegni leonardeschi e le cifre pagate dagli americani per averli. L�opera � del 1993, quindi a testimonianza dell�inflazione che ha colpito il mercato dell�arte negli anni �80 e dell�apprezzamento degli americani per questo fragile medium cita i 5,2 milioni di dollari con cui nel 1980 Armand Hammer si era aggiudicato il Codex Leicester. Negli Stati Uniti, osserva l�autrice, il collezionismo di disegni di Leonardo � storia recente (�pi� di met� dei quindici disegni presenti in collezioni americane vi � giunto dopo il 1950�), e nel secolo scorso Leonardo era tenuto in grande considerazione come scienziato e come artista. I primi due disegni di questa sezione sono stati pagati, nel 1989, 11 milioni di dollari.