Where is Da Vinci’s $450m Jesus painting?
A highly anticipated exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s works at the Louvre is set to open on October 24.
Nearly 120 of the Italian artist’s most famous art pieces will be brought together with Mona Lisa at the Paris museum to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death.
However, with less than two weeks to go before the show opens, there are doubts as to whether the popular Salvator Mundi – the first Leonardo to be found for more than a century – will be featured.
The painting, which depicted Jesus in Renaissance dress, emerged as the world’s most expensive after it sold at a 2017 auction for US$450.3 million to Prince Badr bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
The painting’s whereabouts is currently not known. New York art historian and dealer Robert Simon claimed he had heard that it was “being kept in a secure art storage facility in Switzerland” as of months ago, while Artnet.com alleged it was stored on a superyacht owned by Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Art Newspaper went further to claim that the Salvator Mundi will be “a no-show”, given that the museum had yet to secure the approval for the loan four weeks prior to the opening.
A spokeswoman for the Louvre told the Observer: “I confirm the Louvre has asked for the loan of the Salvator Mundi. We don’t have the answer yet and thus, don’t have any further comment.”
The painting’s authenticity has also been called into question. It was initially attributed to the “school of Giovanni Boltraffio”, a student of Leonardo’s, before it was upgraded to “a work by Boltraffio” in 1958. The piece was only authenticated as “an autograph work by Leonardo” in 2011.
Several experts have challenged the attribution, with some claiming the painting was a “studio work with a little Leonardo at best”.