Is priciest painting in the world just a fake?
Louvre snubs £342m ‘Da Vinci’
AFTER paying £342million for the world’s most expensive painting, you would expect it to be genuine.
But 15 months after a Saudi prince bought what he believed to be Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, art experts have claimed it is not a Leonardo.
Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s culture minister, bought the ‘one of fewer than 20 known paintings by Leonardo’ from Christie’s in 2017 for the record-breaking sum.
The picture, which depicts Christ gesturing with his right hand while holding a crystal orb in his left, was due to be unveiled at the Louvre Abu Dhabi last September – but the big reveal was postponed without explanation.
Now the painting is said to have been snubbed by the Louvre in Paris, where it was to be included in a major Leonardo exhibition.
Art historian and Leonardo expert Jacques Franck has claimed that museum bosses and politicians ‘know that the Salvator Mundi isn’t a Leonardo’.
He said he has written to French president Emmanuel Macron warning him it would be ‘almost scandalous’ if the painting was displayed at the French institution.
‘The Louvre is the dominant museum collector of Leonardo in the world. It would be a shame to have a “workshop Leonardo” next to the Mona Lisa,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph. ‘Macron cannot compromise himself inaugurating an exhibition where not-a-real Leonardo would be next to the Mona Lisa, presented as a beautiful masterpiece. Unthinkable.’
The painting was authenticated in 2008. But leading art figures have claimed the work is not by da Vinci but a product of his studio assistant Bernardino Luini.
Leading Oxford art historian Matthew Landrus has said: ‘This is a Luini painting. Luini paints just like that work you see in the Salvator Mundi.’