The most high-priced painting ever sold at an art public sale is lacking. And it appears no one can account for it.
A portrait of Jesus Chris,t whicartrk historians believe was completed with the aid of Leonardo da Vinci, changed into purchased with the aid of an anonymous purchaser for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in 2017 for $450 million. The painting referred to as “Salvator Mundi” became to be exhibited at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
One month after the auction, The New York Times reviews the museum’s traditional branch announced the painting might be displayed as part of its collection. Last September, the painting was scheduled to be unveiled; however, the event was canceled without an explanation.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi’s culture branch and staff have refused to answer any questions on the portrayal. Also, an authentic at the Louvre in Paris, which lent its call to the Abu Dhabi museum, instructed the Times that their staff has been unable to find the “Salvator Mundi.”
In addition, both museums refused to offer a comment to the Times.
Believed to have been painted around 1500, the portrait’s provenance even consists of it being listed within the inventory of King Charles I of England’s collection after he was executed in 1649, the newspaper suggested. The portrait then disappears from the historical file sometime in the late 1700s.
However, the heavily painted-over paintings later grew to become up of the series of a nineteenth-century British industrialist. Art historians at the time surmised that it became the painting of one of da Vinci’s students.
Then in 2005, two sellers saw it at a public sale in New Orleans and brought it to Dianne Modestini, a professor at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and a conservator, the Times stated.
Modestini restored the details, stripping away the overpainting, and repaired harm to the timber panel.
In 2013, the painting was offered by Russian billionaire Dmitry E. Rybolovlev for $127.Five million who auctioned it off at Christy’s in New York,k, 4 years later. At the time of the Saudi prince’s purchase, a few art historians were skeptical that the portrait was one of da Vinci’s works.
Rumors abound in the art world as to the exact whereabouts of the portrait. One story presently circulating is that it was taken to Europe after payment was made.
Modestini said that she had heard from a recuperation expert that he had been requested by an insurance company to have a look at the painting in Zurich closing fall before further shipping.
But the eexamiexaminationanceledthe TTheimtimeentioned, and the professional declined to comment.
