About Salvator Mundi, the world’s most expensive painting

Salvator Mundi is one of about 20 known works by Italian Renaissance master and polymath, Leonardo da Vinci. It is an oil-on-panel painting, and depicts a half-length figure of Christ as Messiah, or Saviour of the World. In the painting, Christ is shown dressed in flowing robes of lapis and crimson, with a crystal orb in his left hand as he faces the viewer and raises his right hand in benediction. Da Vinci’s skill and knowledge of the sciences is evident in the piece. For instance, in the rendering of the orb, Da Vinci painted jagged bubbles on the bottom right that have the irregular shape of tiny gaps in crystal.

The painting is believed to date back to around 1500, and is likely to have been painted for French royalty. It was eventually brought to Britain by Henrietta Maria when she married Charles I, and remained in the English royal collection for a period. Believed to have been destroyed, and auctioned off in the 18th century with its origins unknown, the painting was found and bought by a British collector in the 20th century. Due to overpainting and previous restoration attempts, it soon began to be credited as a work of art by a Da Vinci pupil until just a few years ago.

A consortium of art dealers acquired the painting at an auction in 2005, and after extensive restoration in New York, the painting was authenticated as a Da Vinci original in 2011. This ‘rediscovery’ is hailed as one of the most significant artistic findings in recent history, as it pertained to the first discovery of a Da Vinci painting since 1909, when the ‘Benois Madonna’ was attributed to him. The piece was then held privately between 2013 and December 2017.