Antoine Harari

London, England, 2008. Some of the most distinguished experts on the work of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) gather at the National Gallery to examine a painting known as Salvator Mundi; an event that turns out to be the first act of one of the most fascinating stories in the history of art.

“A gift so precious, you can only offer it once” was the promise Cryosave, a Swiss multinational and global leader in stem cell banking, made to hundreds of thousands of new parents. For a few thousand francs, the company offered to store their newborn’s umbilical cord blood, an insurance policy against more than 80 illnesses, a safeguard for the future. But behind the brochures lay marketing schemes, hidden commissions, and a lack of oversight. In 2019, Cryosave abruptly went bankrupt. Without notifying its clients, the company quietly transferred over 300,000 stem cell samples to a lab in Poland. Since then, many parents have been fighting to recover what they believed was safely stored.

Ten years ago, activists wanting to experience a collective way of life besieged a wooded countryside near Nantes in order to block the construction of a new airport.