Thursday, April 8, 2021
The painting is not by da Vinci?
The Louvre questions the author of “Salvatore Mundi”
In 2017, Christie’s auction house sold “Salvatore Mundi” for $ 450 million – a record price for a painting. But who did this work was controversial long ago. Officially, Leonardo da Vinci is still considered the author. But the new analyzes confirm another suspicion.
A French documentary raises new doubts about whether the oil painting “Salvatore Mundi” attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci can be considered a work of the great master. According to Antoine Witkin’s film, due to be shown on French television next week, analyzes of the Louvre in Paris came to the conclusion that the painting was made in Da Vinci’s studio, but that the master himself only “contributed” to it.
Salvatore Mundi is the most expensive painting in the world. The work, whose Latin title means “savior (or savior) of the world,” was sold at auction at Christie’s in New York in 2017 for $ 450 million (present value: € 373 million). It has not been shown to the public since the auction. The secret buyer is said to be Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – which Riyadh has denied to this day.
However, it has long been suspected that the painting was created solely or primarily by Da Vinci (1452-1519). The theme of the painting’s authorship reappeared again when the painting was not exhibited at the Grand Da Vinci Gallery at the Louvre in 2019.
Bin Salman requested the establishment of an exhibition next to the “Mona Lisa”
As stated in the documentary, with reference to unknown high-ranking officials of the French government, the results of the Louvre Museum’s scientific analysis of the composition of the painting aroused the dismay of the Saudi actors. Bin Salman called for presenting “Salvatore Mundi” in the exhibition as “Da Vinci one hundred percent” and commenting it alongside the most famous “Mona Lisa”.
But according to the movie, French President Emmanuel Macron was opposed to bin Salman’s demands at the time. Macron left it to the Louvre to negotiate with representatives of Saudi Arabia how to present the painting at the exhibition. These negotiations were not yet to lead to any results, which is why the painting was not shown at the end. The photo shows Jesus Christ, who blessedly raised his right hand holding a crystal ball in his left hand.
