Posted on 11/15/2017 7:17:06 PM PST by Enchante
A painting by Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci that depicts Jesus Christ holding an orb sold for a world record $450.3 million at Christie’s auction house in New York Wednesday night. The painting, called "Salvator Mundi," Italian for "Savior of the World," is one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo known to exist and the only one in private hands. The buyer was not immediately identified. The highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction had been $179.4 million, for Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)" in May 2015....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Can you IMAGINE having that kind of money to spend on a
painting?
.
Enjoy it. I dropped out at 400 mil.
What cracks me up is the Russian who paid $127M for it and then sued for being overcharged.
Didn’t he sell it for $100M?
Mona Lisa cleaned up real nice! We were in teeny-tiny NE corner of Alabama of all places, visiting family, and there was a traveling exhibit of the Mona Lisa and all of her permutations while they were cleaning her up, to show the veil and the background art, etc.
It was really amazing - and I can’t believe we were lucky enough to randomly stumble upon it! What a treat!
300 million was my limit, and I stuck to it!
I love the work of Leonardo, and pardon me, this does not look like his.
But what do I know?
I’m just a bass-playing, harley-riding FReeper....
Oh....this WAS his sale!
"The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Dan Brown's 2003 best-selling novel of the same name. The first in the Robert Langdon film series, the film stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean Reno, and Paul Bettany."
"In the film, Robert Langdon, a professor of religious iconography and symbology from Harvard University, is the prime suspect in the grisly and unusual murder of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. In the body, the police find a disconcerting cipher and start an investigation.[3] A noted British Grail historian named Sir Leigh Teabing tells them that the actual Holy Grail is explicitly encoded in Leonardo da Vinci's wall painting, The Last Supper."
"Also searching for the Grail is a secret cabal within Opus Dei, an actual prelature of the Holy See, who wishes to keep the true Grail a secret; the revelation of this secret would certainly destroy Christianity."
"The film, like the book, was considered controversial. It was met with especially harsh criticism by the Roman Catholic Church for the accusation that it is behind a two-thousand-year-old cover-up concerning what the Holy Grail really is and the concept that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and that the union produced a daughter."
"Many members urged the laity to boycott the film. Two organizations, the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei figure prominently in the story. In the book, Dan Brown claims that the Priory of Sion and "...all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate".
"The film grossed $224 million in its worldwide opening weekend and a total of $758 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 2006 behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was followed by two sequels, Angels & Demons (2009) and Inferno (2016)."
I have my doubts, too!! The authentication does not seem bullet-proof by any means, and the provenance is murky. I’m no expert but one reason I did not think the price would get so high is that it seems difficult to feel 100% certain that this painting is by Leonardo himself and not (as was believed for a long time) by someone from his workshop.
When you compare it to the Mona Lisa, there is some vague similarity and yet this one (Salvator Mundi) does not seem to me as finely crafted. It seems like it could easily be someone “of the school of Da Vinci” but not the master himself....
But what do I know, I am just an amateur observer. They have some number of experts who have authenticated it, although there do seem to be some lingering doubts.....
I did, too, but then I had to scratch my nose. Darn it!
Yes, he seems to have done awfully well for himself, assuming he was still the owner etc. A rapid rise in valuation over just 4 years!
I don’t follow the art markets closely, but apparently the high-end prices have simply exploded over the past 20 years. Lots of sales in the range of $30-150 million.
Indeed. I agree with you.
It is very beautiful.
Look into the eyes.
The eyes appear to have been weeping. Weeping for the World.
It’s absolutely beautiful.
Those are the cards the poker-playing dogs are holding.
I agree it is a very beautiful painting.
This might help:
Yes they do, and they also show love.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.