It was sold for around 50 euros in 1958 – and now it’s worth an estimated 85 million.<br /><br />Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’, an oil on panel canvas of Jesus Christ, has been hailed by auction house Christie’s as ‘the greatest artistic rediscovery of the 21st century’.<br /><br />Now on display at Christie’s in London before its sale next month in New York, it’s the only privately owned painting by da Vinci.<br /><br />“There are only 15 or 16 surviving examples of his work in painting and so to have one rediscovered and available for sale is, I have to say, the rarest event of my career,” said Alan Wintermute, senior specialist at Christie’s New York.<br /><br />The painting dates from around 1500, around the same time da Vinci painted ‘Mona Lisa’.<br /><br />“The way the shadows, the famous shadows, like on the face of the ‘Mona Lisa’ are built up, is very characteristic of his work at this period.”<br /><br />The painting was first recorded during the reign of King Charles I (1600 – 1649) and then disappeared from 1763 to 1900, when the figure’s face and hair were over-painted with a beard and moustache.<br /><br />In 1958 the altered work was sold for the equivalent of 50 euros at a Sotheby’s sale before disappearing again until 2005, when it was purchased from an American estate at a small regional auction house.<br /><br />Its rediscovery was followed by six years of intense research to document its authenticity.<br /><br />Christie’s has now put ‘Salvator Mundi’ on tour, showing the painting at exhibitions in London, Hong Kong, New York and San Francisco.<br /><br />The painting will be offered in Christie’s Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art on November 15, 2017 in Rockefeller Plaza.<br /><br />With Reuters<br />
