No Mona Lisa
Mark Hudson on that $450m painting
IT IS the most expensive painting ever sold, but the Salvator Mundi is famous not just for its price tag – for decades it has also been the subject of debate between scholars about whether or not it was truly painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
Experts discussed whether the orb held in Christ’s left hand offered proof that the painting was not the work of the artist.
The painting, an image of Christ dating from around 1500, has been sold by Christie’s for $450.3 million (£341.2 million), but for years it was thought to be worth much less as it was attributed to a Leonardo student.
In 1958, it was sold by collector Sir Francis Cook for just £45. More than 50 years later, after restoration, it was finally accepted as genuine.
Scholars said the passage of light through the orb should warp the robes behind, especially given Leonardo’s skill at depicting light and perspective. Michael Daley, the director of Artwatch UK, has claimed that the painting is too “deadpan flat, like an icon, with no real depth in the modelling”. He has also claimed that a later engraving, by Wenceslaus Hollar, a 17thcentury etcher, which was based on the original, did show a distortion, suggesting that this version is not the same one he worked from. However, Christie’s disputes this and says the two works match.
Walter Isaacson, Leonardo’s biographer, concluded that the painting is genuine and the artist was using the technique deliberately to “impart a miraculous quality to Christ and his orb”. Frank Zöllner, a German art historian and professor, has written that the painting “exhibits a number of weaknesses” and could be a “highquality product of Leonardo’s workshop”. But following the sale, he conceded: “This is a very small step for mankind, but a big step for the art market.” The identity of the buyer was not disclosed by Christie’s, but rumours in the art world centre on two possible destinations: the newly opened Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Long Museum in Shanghai. The latter is owned by Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver who is one of China’s billionaires. In 2015, he paid $170 million (£128 million) for Modigliani’s Reclining Nude, then the second highest price ever paid for an art work at auction.
Richard Cook, who is Sir Francis’s grandson and has a background in art history, was philosophical about the change in value.
“Most of us would do things differently if we had the advantage of hindsight,” he said. “I think it’s wonderful that the truth behind the painting has been discovered,” he said.
He said his only wish was that the painting be accessible to the public.
A spokesman for Christie’s said: “While we welcome the level of interest in the work, it is important to note that all the leading active scholars on this artist and period have already supported the full authorship of this painting, which is why it was exhibited with full attribution to Leonardo da Vinci at the National Gallery in London in 2011.
“Christie’s stands behind the detailed cataloguing of the work of art, which includes a thorough assessment of attribution and condition.”
‘All leading active scholars on this artist and period have supported the full authorship of this painting’