Money can provide many things, but pleasure is not always among them. However, thanks to these great chances, art history has left us some of humanity’s greatest works of art. What would art be without the wealth of the wealthy Italian merchants of the Renaissance or the patronage given to artists by Popes and kings for centuries?

Leonardo da Vinci was – as well as a good catch – one of those sponsored people who honed his talent in light of the fortunes of millionaires, kings and popes throughout his life, but would continue to be remembered for several of his works after his death. It adorns the luxurious rooms of the palaces of millionaire sheikhs.

One of Da Vinci’s paintings, ‘Salvator Mundi’, has become the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. As capricious fate would have it, experts eventually determined that the painting may not have belonged to the Florentine artist.

‘Salvator Mundi’ wasn’t always a Da Vinci

How to publish Wall StreetJournal‘Salvator Mundi’ was not always attributed to Da Vinci. In 1958, the painting was so retouched and repainted that it looked like a poor copy of the great Italian master’s style, so it sold for just under $200.

Trace of the work was lost until 2005, when art dealers Alex Parish and Robert Simon bought a property in New Orleans where the painting was found for $10,000.

The art expert believed the painting had potential, but he never thought it was a real Da Vinci. “It looked like a damaged but valuable Renaissance work. “I thought it was beautiful but worn and very painted,” Simon said. CNBC. Do you remember Lorca’s ‘Ecce Homo’?

Simon and Parish hired New York University conservator Dianne Dwyer Modestini to restore the badly damaged painting so they could sell it for a better price. The restoration took several years, but what came to light was this: “When the old layer of paint was scraped away and the original work began to emerge, this magical feeling took over. The painting was a real Da Vinci!”

By 2011, Simon and Parish had consulted the world’s leading authorities on the Great Masters of the Renaissance, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. National Gallery from London.

Experts compared the painting with 20 copies of this work attributed to students in Leonardo’s workshop, but agreed that it was better done than the others, meaning it must belong to the master Da Vinci. That same year, the National Gallery in London officially exhibited it as an authenticated work by Da Vinci.

Detail of the eyes and nose of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi painting

Details such as the position of the thumb, esfumato The painting used on the face or the technique used on the hair was decisive in convincing experts that this was a work only Da Vinci could create.

The ‘Salvator Mundi’, now an original Da Vinci, was re-auctioned in New York in 2012 and purchased by art dealer Yves Bouvier for $80 million. In return, he sells it to Russian millionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $125.7 million.

Let the show begin! 450 million dollars to Da Vinci

Christie’s surprised the world in 2017 by auctioning off the painting, which has been called “Leonardo’s last painting” or the “male Mona Lisa” due to its uncanny resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci’s most popular painting. Expectations were high and the show did not disappoint the public.

So much so that the popular auction house broadcast the event online and drew viewers to watch the auction, with a marketing campaign the auction house ordered from an advertising agency.

The work, painted by Da Vinci in 1500 and said to be in the possession of three kings of England, was expected to find a buyer for 100 million dollars at the end of the auction. The truth is, what no one expected was for the bid to increase by ten million, quadruple the original estimate.

A mysterious buyer who spoke on the phone won the bid and paid $400 million for the painting; The buyer’s premium also had to be added to this. The final price of the painting was $450,312,500.

This made ‘Salvator Mundi’ the world’s most expensive painting, far surpassing the $179.3 million paid in 2015 for Picasso’s ‘Les femmes d’Alger’, which was purchased by billionaire former Qatar Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim.

According to a study conducted by New York TimesThe buyer of ‘Salvator Mundi’ was Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan al Saud. However, it was soon learned that the real owner of the painting was Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the main guarantor of the pharaonic artifacts of the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia.

The Louvre won’t buy it

The work was to be exhibited together with ‘La Gioconda’ at the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2019 on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Da Vinci’s death.

However, the Paris museum insisted that the work be reclassified as “from Leonardo’s workshop” and refused to display it next to the Mona Lisa, which was classified as a work by Da Vinci.

Diplomatically, the Paris museum refrained from directly attributing it to the master, after reanalyzing the painting by subjecting it to a particle accelerator unique in the world that allows in-depth analysis of canvases.

This cataloging change deeply angered the Saudi prince, who withdrew the transfer of the painting. As El País points out, this has almost become a diplomatic incident. Since that incident, the Louvre has made no comment about the real author of ‘Salvator Mundi’ because the painting was eventually not displayed on its walls. To a good understander…

While the originality of the work was questioned with this move, it was stated that Leonardo da Vinci only contributed to this painting and was not the only author. So it is confirmed that the teacher only corrects the work of those who are likely to be the best of his students.

as it is said TelegramThe painting lost a few zeros in value with that cataloging, and the appraisals made under that label dropped to 1.5 million dollars. It’s a far cry from the 450 million he paid himself.

The Elysée’s expertise has caused some “experts” to speak out, decrying that auction house Christie’s has altered cataloging to increase its value.

“I actually don’t want to be among those who said ‘yes’ because they didn’t ask me what I thought of ‘Salvator Mundi’ at the time. If my name were added to that list, it would be an implicit statement that I agreed with the attribution to Leonardo. But I am not,” he declared in a devastating essay. Guardian Dr., one of the experts who examined the painting before the 2017 auction. Carmen Bambach.

Bambach confirmed that the work was largely done by “Leonardo’s assistant Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio”. “I think it was not a good investment,” the expert told the British media.

Following disagreements between the French art gallery and the Saudi prince, the painting was sent back to Saudi Arabia; According to Artnet’s research, the eccentric Saudi prince hung the painting on the walls of the superyacht Serene and it was never seen again. was publicly disclosed.

in Xataka | Leonardo da Vinci designed what would have been the world’s longest bridge in his time: It was 3D printed and it would work

Image | Wikimedia Commons (Presidential Press and Information Office)