Mary Magdalene, on show at Leonardo and his Outstanding Circleat the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, is believed to be an authentic artwork by Leonardo da Vinci and one of his disciples. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

However, the validity of Barbatelli's judgment and the general quality of the exhibits were questioned and panned by You Yong, an influential art blogger on Weibo, China's Twitter equivalent.

You, a CAFA alumnus now pursuing his doctorate in oil painting at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, wrote several long posts on his Weibo account to cast doubts on the show and its curator, calling for a boycott.

"This exhibition is a blatant mockery of Da Vinci, his times, and the general public. The showpieces fail to convincingly support the theme, and they are revelry of fake paintings and imitations," read a line from You's highlighted post, which has attracted nearly 10,000 likes and thousands of reposts.