Mona Lisa is known for her inscrutable smile, but there’s another Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece which is equally intriguing. The Salvator Mundi is the world’s most expensive artwork. In 2017, it was sold for a record $450m at auction by Christie’s in New York. After that, the location of the painting was kept secret. Many people speculated about its location, but were unable to find it. On June 2019, Artnet, an art industry news service disclosed the mysterious hideout of the painting. According to the news service, the 500-year-old painting was being kept on Prince Mohammed’s yacht, Serene!
The fact that Salvator Mundi was the last work by da Vinci in private hands therefore makes it an extremely enticing prospect for any private collector looking to own a serious piece of art history.
There’s been some debate in the art world as to whether the da Vinci painting is really by the master himself. Some think it’s a fake, whilst some think that extensive restoration work on the painting interferes with the ability to attribute it to da Vinci. Christie’s say that scholars agree that is authentic and its finding in 2005 is “the greatest artistic rediscovery of the 20th century.”
Picture Credit : Google