da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ sells for record 450 million dollars

A portrait of Jesus Christ painted by Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance era genius painter, has been sold for a record price.

The Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday that da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” (Saviour of the World) sold for 450 million U.S. dollars at Christie’s in New York. The last Leonardo da Vinci painting in private hands among less than 20 pieces of his works depicts Jesus raising his right hand in benediction while holding a crystal orb in his left hand.

Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev put the painting up for sale for 100 million dollars, but the price more than quadrupled in just about 20 minutes to the highest auction price ever for any work of art sold at auction and twice as much as the previous record.

The previous record for a painting sold at auction was Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d'Alger” (Women of Algiers), which went for 179.4 million dollars at Christie’s in 2015. The AP reported that the identity of the buyer remained unknown and that the buyer was involved in a bidding contest via telephone.

Su-Yeon Kim sykim@donga.com