A major, rarely seen Leonardo da Vinci drawing is going on display in New York.
Sotheby’s announced the display Thursday on the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.
The auction house is hanging “Leda and the Swan” in its redesigned Manhattan galleries next month as part of an exhibition of treasures from the collection at Britain’s Chatsworth House.
Leonardo created the pen-and-ink drawing in 1506, around the time he was working on the “Mona Lisa.” It was preparatory work for a painting that appears never to have been completed.
Gregory Rubinstein, Sotheby’s worldwide head of Old Master drawings, says the project is mysterious “because there is no surviving record of any commission and no painting survives.”
The galleries open to the public Friday. The Chatsworth exhibition runs June 28-Sept. 18.