UAE delays unveiling of $450M Da Vinci painting
THE United Arab Emirates said Monday it had postponed the unveiling of the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s most prized acquisition – a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, bought for a record $450 million.
The painting, which was bought last year, had been due to be unveiled on September 18.
But Abu Dhabi’s culture and tourism department on Monday announced “the postponement of the unveiling of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in a tweet.
“More d e t a i l s wi l l b e announced soon,” it said.
The Salvator Mundi, a portrait of Jesus Christ painted in 1500, was the only one of the f e wer t han 2 0 pai nt i ngs believed to be the work of the famed Renaissance Old Master still in private hands when it went under the hammer, and s ol d, at Christie’s i n November.
The painting was declared authentic six years ago, after long being dismissed as a copy by one of Da Vinci’s students.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi has kept tight-lipped over the identity of the painting’s buyer, saying only that the emirate’s Department of Culture and Tourism had “acquired” it.
Last December, the New York Times identified the buyer as an obscure member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Badr bin Abdullah.
The Wall Street Journal later reported Bin Abdullah was acting on behalf of Saudi Ara- bia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. He has never confirmed or denied the report.
Prince Badr was appointed to head the kingdom’s culture ministr y in a government shakeup in June.
Saudi Arabia and the neighbouring United Arab Emirates are very close allies who are both engaged militarily in the war against rebels in Yemen, and diplomatically and economically against Gulf rival Qatar. SalvatorMundi