The latest Da Vinci mystery 

by

Leticia Marie Sanchez

The Salvator Mundi, supposedly painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, sold for a staggering $450.3  million at Christie’s in New York was bought by a Saudi prince.

Yet rumors have surfaced that the Louvre Abu Dhabi postponed an unveiling of this painting, due to disputes about its authentication.

The painting is  set to make a cameo appearance at the Louvre Paris this Fall to celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the death of Da Vinci.

What is mind-boggling is that this “Da Vinci” was purchased at a Louisiana estate sale in 2005 for a measly $10,000. And tracing its provenance, further, the Kuntz family purchased it in London in 1958 for a mere $120, not as a Da Vinci painting, but instead attributed to the “school of Da Vinci.” *

Jonathan Jones’ informative article in the Guardian includes the revelation that Oxford academic Matthew Landrus, an Oxford academic, has  suggested that this work was painted by Da Vinci’s “third-rate imitator” Bernardino Luini.

For more information please read:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/14/leonardo-da-vinci-mystery-why-is-his-450m-masterpiece-really-being-kept-under-wraps-salvator-mundi

*For information on the “Patchwork Provenance” please see https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/salvator-mundi-s-patchwork-provenance-now-includes-a-50-year-stop-in-louisiana