Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)
Rediscovery and restoration
It was exhibited in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and New York in 2017, and then sold at auction at Christie's in New York on 15 November 2017 for $450,312,500, a new record price for an artwork (hammer price $400 million plus $50.3 million in fees). The purchaser was identified as Saudi Arabian prince Badr bin Abdullah. In December 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that Prince Badr was an intermediary for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, Christie's confirmed that Prince Badr acted on behalf of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism for display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. In September 2018, the exhibition was indefinitely postponed, and a January 2019 news report indicated that "no one knows where it is, and there are grave concerns for its physical safety." Georgina Adam, editor at large of The Art Newspaper, dismissed these reports, stating that "We believe it's in storage in Geneva." It was later reported to be on a luxury yacht belonging to bin Salman, sailing on the Red Sea as of June 2019.
Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)-13