$450M da Vinci coming to Louvre
abu dhabi — A Leonardo da Vinci painting which clinched more than $450 million at an auction recently is on its way to the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Less than a month after it opened its doors in the Capital, the “first universal museum in the Arab world” has found itself in the limelight again.
The new owner of Salvator Mundi, the Leonardo da Vinci painting that broke auction house records, has been revealed as the Saudi Arabian Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud.
It will mark the second piece to be featured in-house at the Louvre Abu Dhabi by famed renaissance artist da Vinci. The spectacular 16th century painting which is soon to adorn the museum depicts an image of Christ, and it will sit within the same walls as the La Belle Ferronnière — the portrait of an unknown woman by da Vinci, which is currently on loan from the Louvre in Paris.
As yet, there is no confirmation on when Salvator Mundi will arrive in Abu Dhabi, but the museum did take to Twitter to announce the exciting news: “Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi is coming to #LouvreAbuDhabi,” the museum tweeted.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com
abu dhabi — Less than a month after the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened with a big bang in the Capital, the “first universal museum in the Arab world” is in the limelight again for clinching the $450 million painting titled Salvator Mundi by Leonardo Da Vinci, at the Christie’s auction in New York.
The 16th century painting of Christ by the renaissance artist will be the latest artwork to adorn the Jean Nouvel-designed museum in Abu Dhabi, making it the second Da Vinci work to find a home in Louvre Abu Dhabi.
“Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi is coming to #LouvreAbuDhabi,” tweeted Louvre Abu Dhabi in Arabic, English and French yesterday.
La Belle Ferronniere, portrait of an unknown woman, by Da Vinci is on loan from the Louvre in Paris, and is one of the biggest crowd-pullers in the newly opened museum. However, there is no confirmation on when the painting will arrive in Abu Dhabi.
Auction house Christie’s has declined to identify the buyer, whose purchase in New York for $450.3 million stunned the art world. But The New York Times on Wednesday, citing documents it reviewed, identified the buyer as Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud.
Abu Dhabi Louvre opened to the public on November 11 with much fanfare after almost a decade in the making, at the Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
More than 600 artworks that span the entirety of humankind and spanning civilisations are on display at the museum. Priceless artworks have been loaned from the top 13 French museums and institutions, including Musée du Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, the Centre Pompidou, the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Musée du Quai Branly.