Salvator Mundi 'sold' - official
March 4 2014
Picture: Robert Simon Fine Art/Tim Nighswander
The New York Times reveals that the newly discovered Salvator Mundi by Leonard has been sold for in excess of $75m:
A Leonardo da Vinci painting discovered by a dealer at an American estate sale was sold last year in a private transaction for more than $75 million.
The painting, Leonardo’s oil-on-panel “Salvator Mundi,” showing Christ half-length with a crystal orb in his left hand, had been owned by a consortium that included the New York art traders Alexander Parish and Robert Simon.
The heavily restored painting, dating from about 1500, was bought by an unidentified collector for between $75 million and $80 million in May 2013, in a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s. The details of the purchase have remained locked in confidentiality clauses until they were revealed this week by trade insiders, such as the London dealer Anthony Crichton-Stuart.
Regular AHN readers will of course have known this news since I revealed it exclusively in May last year.
Update - more reflection on the sale, and also that of the Van Dyck self-portrait, in the New York Times here.
