NEW YORK
(Reuters) - The last privately owned Leonardo da Vinci painting and one of
fewer than 20 by the Renaissance artist known to still exist is hitting the
auction block, Christie’s announced on Tuesday.
“Salvator Mundi,” an
ethereal portrait of Jesus Christ which dates to about 1500, is expected to
sell for about $100 million at Christie’s in November, making it among the most
highly-valued works ever to be sold at auction.
“This is truly the Holy Grail of
art rediscoveries,” said Alan Wintermute, Christie’s senior specialist for Old
Master paintings, explaining that the portrait sometimes called the male Mona
Lisa had long been thought to have been lost or destroyed.
The portrait depicts Christ in vivid blue and crimson
robes holding a crystal orb.
First recorded in the private
collection of King Charles I, the work was auctioned in 1763 before vanishing
until 1900, by which time Christ’s face and hair had been painted over, which
Wintermute said was “quite common” practice.
Sold at Sotheby’s to an American collector in 1958
for 45 pounds, it again sold in 2005 as an overpainted copy of the masterwork,
he said.
The new owner started
the restoration process, and after some six years of research it was
authenticated as da Vinci’s more-than 500-year-old masterpiece, which
culminated in a high-profile exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2011.
The auction house did
not identify the seller, a European private collector who acquired the work
after its rediscovery in 2005 and lengthy restoration. The painting stands as
the first discovery of a da Vinci painting since 1909.
“Salvator Mundi” will
be sold at Christie’s in New York at its Nov. 15 sale of post-war and
contemporary art following public exhibitions in Hong Kong, London and San
Francisco.
“We felt that offering
this painting within that context is a testament to the enduring relevance of
this picture,” said Loic Gouzer, chairman of Christie’s post-war and
contemporary art.
Speaking to its $100
million estimate, Wintermute reflected “There has never been anything like it
sold, and so the market will decide.”
The same sale at
Christie’s will feature Andy Warhol’s monumental “Sixty Last Suppers,” a piece
from one of the pop artist’s final series before his death in 1987.
The 32-foot,
multiple-image work is estimated to fetch $50 million.
No comments