Auctioned for $ 450 million, da Vinci's work is the most expensive in history
Whenever a Leonardo da Vinci work goes on auction, we can bet it will be sold by many - MANY - millions. However, a painting auctioned off yesterday by an anonymous buyer during an event organized by the renowned Christie's auction house in New York exceeded all expectations and obliterated all previous records of values ever paid for a work of art: the piece was purchased for astronomical $ 450, 312, 500 (counting commissions) or the equivalent of nearly $ 1.5 billion!
The painting in question is a painting (oil on wood) called Salvator Mundi that shows Christ as king and savior of the world. The work, which measures 45.5 x 65.6 centimeters and was attributed to da Vinci, was created in the early 16th century for the French monarch Louis 17 - and, by the way, has a very interesting history!
Comings and goings
Experts believe that the painting - from which Leonardo created some sketches - was painted between 1506 and 1513 for the French monarch, but ended up in the hands of King Charles I of England, who was an avid collector of works of art. . Except that the ruler was executed in 1649, on the occasion of a war between the royalists and the English and Scottish parliament, and the painting was in the possession of a guy named John Stone.
The painting remained with Stone until 1660, when Charles II (son of Charles I) returned from exile to regain the English throne and she was returned. After that, it is known that the work apparently went from one monarch to another and remained in London's Whitehall Palace until the mid-18th century - when it was auctioned off.
From then on there is no information on the picture's wanderings, and it was only reappeared in the early 20th century after being bought by Sir Charles Robinson as a work of Bernardino Luini, a famous disciple of da Vinci. Then the painting fell into oblivion until 1958, when it was auctioned off by the £ 45 "merreca" - an amount that today would be equivalent to the price of a new iPhone.
Then the play disappeared again and only appeared again in 2005, after it was bought by a consortium of US art dealers for less than $ 10, 000. When it was acquired, the work was badly damaged and was partially covered by another painting.
But, after being restored and authenticated as a da Vinci masterpiece, the painting was sold to Swiss collector Yves Bouvier for $ 80 million in 2013 - and "resold" to Russian billionaire Dmitry. Rybolovlev for $ 127.5 million in the same year.
Record
Currently, the painting is known among experts as the “Holy Grail of the World of Art”, and the auction, which took place yesterday (November 15), had a starting bid of US $ 70 million (almost R $ 232 million). In the end, despite huge expectation, the bidding fight was between two participants whose identities were not disclosed and lasted close to twenty minutes.
The hammer was struck when one of the buyers bid $ 400 million (just over $ 1.3 billion), and the total amount disbursed by the person was over $ 450 million after the addition of the appropriate fees and commissions. Fees.
With this extraordinary amount, the piece stole the record for the most expensive artwork ever auctioned by Pablo Picasso's “Women of Algiers”, which was awarded two years ago for almost R $ 630 million. It still topped the amount paid during the largest private deal ever - when financier Kenneth Griffin disbursed about $ 995 million for Willem de Kooning's "Interchange" and even another da Vinci - also auctioned off. Christie's for $ 38 million in 2001.
