Duveen on Da Vinci

After eight years of preparation, 21 days of trial, 590,000 words of testimony and 14 hours of deliberation by the jury, the Manhattan trial of Sir Joseph Duveen came, last week, to naught. Grey as the dawn in which they appeared, the jurymen reported a deadlock. Justice William Harman Black of the New York Supreme Court thanked and discharged them.

Mrs. Harry J. Hahn of Kansas City had been unable to prove that her heirloom painting was a Leonardo, or that Sir Joseph was guilty of slander when he pronounced it only a graceless copy of Leonardo's La Belle Ferroniere in the Louvre (TIME, Feb. 18 et seq.). Therefore she could not extract $500,000 damages from Sir Joseph. He, on the other hand, had failed to impress the jury with his opinions. Therefore he could not feel the pride appropriate to an international art tycoon.

As final testimony X-ray pictures of both paintings were displayed. This comparison interested the jury, delighted the defense. Reason: the Belle's jewelry was invisible in the Louvre Xray. This indicated that the painter of the Louvre Belle had first laid down metallic flesh tints (impermeable by X-rays) then painted the jewelry over them. The practice of blocking out the whole figure before adding ornament is favored by artists working from live models. But in the Hahn X-ray the jewelry was clearly visible suggesting that the Hahn Belle had first been carefully sketched then colored in separate sections--flesh, fabric, jewelry. This is a practice favored by copyists.

The jury deadlocked at nine votes for Mrs. Hahn, three for Sir Joseph.