It is only a fragile piece of paper, 39 by 54 inches, but Britain's Royal Academy figured that it would sell for $2,800,000. And why not sell it? Leonardo's drawing of Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist would not be much missed−to judge from the scant attention it got in nearly 200 years at the academy, mostly not even on public display. Off to Sotheby's last March went the announcement that the drawing, thought to be the cartoon of Leonardo's similar painting in the Louvre, would be auctioned....
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