Leonardo da Vinci painting 'Salvator Mundi' sells for record-breaking $450m at auction in New York

Tom Powell16 November 2017

A Leonardo da Vinci painting has been sold at auction for more than $450m (£341m), making it the most expensive piece of art ever sold under the hammer.

‘Salvator Mundi’, the last Da Vinci in private hands, sold for exactly $450,312,500 at Christie’s in Manhattan, New York, on Wednesday.

The 26-inch-tall painting dates from around 1500 and is believed to show Christ dressed in Renaissance-style robes, his right hand raised in blessing as his left hand holds a crystal sphere.

‘Salvator Mundi ‘– Italian for ‘Saviour of the World’ – is one of fewer than 20 known Da Vinci paintings, although some believe it could be a fake.

'Salvator Mundi' is the last privately owned Leonardo da Vinci painting
REUTERS

It was once owned by King Charles I of England before disappearing from view until 1900, when it resurfaced and was acquired by a British collector. At that time it was attributed to a disciple of Da Vinci, rather than to the master himself.

The painting was sold again in 1958 and then acquired in 2005, badly damaged and partly painted-over, by a consortium of art dealers who paid less than $10,000.

The painting was sold Wednesday by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought it in 2013 for $127.5m (£97m) in a private sale.

Christie's says most scholars agree that the painting is by a Vinci, though some critics have questioned the attribution and others say the extensive restoration muddies the work's authorship.

The painting was exhibited in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York before the sale
EPA

The work was exhibited in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York before the sale.

In New York, where no museum owns a Da Vinci, art lovers lined up outside Christie's Rockefeller Center headquarters on Tuesday to view ‘Salvator Mundi’.

The highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction had been $179.4 million, for Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)" in May 2015, also at Christie's in New York.

The highest known sale price for any artwork had been $300 million, for Willem de Kooning's "Interchange," sold privately in September 2015 by the David Geffen Foundation to hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin.

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