Why Leonardo's $450 mn masterpiece shouldn't disappear from public view

The sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi for US$450m (£342m) raised many of the familiar questions about the authenticity of the painting, the astronomical sums of money paid for single works of art that bear no relation to anything else openly sold – and the audience for this image in the future.

Is this painting by Leonardo? For many years the painting was thought to be the work of an artist (some people believed Giovanni Boltraffio) in da Vinci’s circle. But after careful cleaning and analysis by scholars, before and since it appeared in the National Gallery’s exhibition of 2011-12, there is now a fairly general consensus that the work is authentic. The auction house which sold the painting, Christie’s, has also conducted a clever publicity campaign to promote its authenticity.

So far, television pundits have been more prominent in talking about the sale than established Leonardo scholars – but many factors add up to a likelihood that what we are seeing here is a Leonardo original of around 1500, towards the end of his time in Milan.


The painting is thought to have been commissioned by Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany, shortly after the conquests of Milan and Genoa. From there it accompanied Louis’ descendant, Queen Henrietta Maria, to England when she married Charles I. After his execution it was sold into the Royal Collection in part payment of the late king’s debts. From there it disappeared in the 18th century.
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