Leonardo da Vinci, copy of the “Salvator Mundi” sold at auction for one million euros

A late copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, badly damaged, fetched €1 million at auction against an initial estimate of €10,000-15,000. Sold online at the Old Masters auction organized by Christie’s in Paris on November 28, it represents an extraordinary price for a work by an unknown artist, points out «The Art Newspaper».

The painting, which measures 63.2 cm by 51 cm and was executed on a poplar panel, is described as “Italian school, circa 1600, after Leonardo da Vinci”, in the auction house’s catalog notes.

If the dating is correct, it is impossible that this work comes from the artist’s workshop, who died in France a century earlier. According to Pierre Etienne, international director of Christie’s for the Old Masters, no forensic examination was conducted on the pigments of the work, but a “condition report” was commissioned by the auction house.

Signed by an independent restorer, Bernard Depretz, it indicates that there are “several small losses on Christ’s red robe, beard, top, background and globe”. An ultraviolet examination shows several traces of restoration, but, according to the report, “since the important parts of the painting have not been altered, the painting can be considered in an excellent state of conservation”.

The report also says that the panel belongs to a family from the south of France, but there is no record of a longer historical provenance. In the 2019 catalog for the Leonardo exhibition at the Louvre, Vincent Delieuvin, curator of Italian painting, listed 22 known (and more or less faithful) copies of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi, including this one. This version belongs to a “family” of three compositions. Of these, the one considered to be of higher quality disappeared after an auction sale in 1962. It may have been painted in Leonardo’s workshop and was in the collections of Richard Worsley and Victoria Alexandrina Hare and her husband Charles Anderson-Pelham, Count and Countess Yarborough, according to a photograph seen by The Art Newspaper. These three copies could be inspired by an intermediate composition, as they show the blessing right arm in a position and with a cuff similar to a draft drawing of a drapery, belonging to the Royal Collection at Windsor, which was later corrected by the artist. The extraordinary price paid for this copy demonstrates the attractive power of the Salvator Mundi from the Cook collection, now owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after being purchased in 2017 by Christie’s for $450 million by Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The painting has not been seen since, contributing to an aura of mystery and fueling rumors of his fate. “Everything related to Leonardo da Vinci unleashes the wildest passions,” says Pierre Etienne, recalling the €2.9 million fetched by a 17th-century copy of the Mona Lisa at Christie’s in an online sale in 2021. It belonged to a collector and trader, Raymond Hekking, who had bought it for the equivalent of 5 euros in the south of France and who remained convinced, until his death in 1977, that it was the real one.