# Salvator Mundi > Leonardo da Vinci - c. 1500 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/leonardo-da-vinci/salvator-mundi-attributed-to-leonardo/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-30 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Leonardo da Vinci - **Date:** c. 1500 - **Medium:** Oil on walnut panel - **Dimensions:** Painted image 64.5 x 44.7 cm. Panel 65.5 x 45.6 cm at the top and 65.5 x 45.1 cm at the bottom. Christie's published 45.4 x 65.6 cm. - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Italian, High Renaissance - **Current location:** Unlocated. No public record places the panel anywhere since the sale of 15 November 2017. - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A walnut panel bought at an estate sale in New Orleans in April 2005 for a sum recorded on the auction house's own prices-realised sheet as 1,175 dollars, restored over roughly twelve years by Dianne Dwyer Modestini, exhibited at the National Gallery in London in 2011 as Leonardo, sold privately in 2013 twice in two days at 80 and then 127.5 million dollars, and sold at Christie's New York on 15 November 2017 at a hammer of 400 million dollars, 450,312,500 dollars with fees. It has not been publicly seen since.The crux of the record is not the price. It is a 46-page book. In December 2019 the Louvre printed Leonard de Vinci. Le Salvator Mundi, by its own curator and its own laboratory scientists, concluding that the picture is by Leonardo. The book went briefly on sale in the museum bookshop, was withdrawn, and the museum later told a reporter that it did not exist. A national museum's attribution was therefore published and unpublished within weeks, and the painting it described was never hung.Two further things must be held in mind on every page about this object. There are more than thirty extant paintings of the composition and at least three of them circulate under captions that would fit this one. And the picture the world knows is a restored state: photographs of the same panel before cleaning show something markedly different, and this record labels which state every plate shows. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1500** Painted in Milan or France; patron unrecorded `[disputed]` (origin) No painting of this subject by Leonardo is documented in his lifetime. Ludwig Heydenreich argued in 1964 for a lost prototype; Maria Teresa Fiorio argued in 2005 that Leonardo never executed one and that the copies descend from drawings and cartoons. Two drawings for the subject survive in the Royal Collection at Windsor. - **1649-1763** English royal collection, and the Buckingham House sale `[disputed]` (claimed early chain) The provenance advanced in 2017 runs a Leonardo Salvator Mundi through the possessions of Charles I, the Commonwealth valuation of thirty pounds, the Restoration inventories, and the sale of the Buckingham House pictures by Sir Charles Herbert Sheffield in 1763. Hollar's etching of 1650 is the anchor. Every link is an identification of this panel with a documentary entry, not a receipt naming it. - **1900-1958** Sir Francis Cook, 1st Baronet, and his descendants, Doughty House, Richmond `[documented]` (purchase) Bought from Sir Charles Robinson in 1900 for 120 pounds as a Luini. The 1913 catalogue of the Italian paintings in the Cook Collection by Tancred Borenius and Herbert Cook lists it as number 106, describes it as suffering from both over-cleaning and repainting, and calls it a free copy after the Salvator Mundi by Boltraffio then with G. B. Vittadini at Arcore. Herbert Cook added that he preferred to call it a parallel work by some contemporary painter of Leonardo's school. No earlier provenance is recorded in that catalogue. Hung in the Long Gallery at Doughty House despite its condition. - **1958-2004** Warren and Minnie Kuntz, New Orleans, then Basil Clovis Hendry Sr, Baton Rouge `[documented]` (purchase at auction) Sold at Sotheby's on 25 June 1958 in a sale of 136 Cook paintings, for 45 pounds, about 120 dollars, as Boltraffio. Kenneth Clark, Ellis Waterhouse and the dealer Gianni Salocchi attended. The post-sale list recorded the buyer only as Kuntz; the identification of Warren and Minnie Kuntz was made by Wall Street Journal reporters in September 2018. Mrs Kuntz bequeathed her estate to her nephew Basil Clovis Hendry, who hung the picture in his stairwell in Baton Rouge. He died in 2004. During this period the Cook restoration was removed, the losses clumsily touched up and a new varnish applied. - **2005-2013** Alexander Parish and Robert Simon, joined by Warren Adelson `[documented]` (purchase at auction) Bought as lot 664 at the St Charles Gallery, New Orleans, sale of 9 and 10 April 2005, catalogued as After Leonardo da Vinci. Restored by Dianne Dwyer Modestini from 2005. Shown to Nicholas Penny and then to five scholars at the National Gallery, London. Exhibited as Leonardo in Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, National Gallery, London, November 2011 to February 2012. Offered unsuccessfully to the Dallas Museum of Art after the exhibition. - **2013** Yves Bouvier `[documented]` (private sale) Sotheby's Private Sales approached the owners in April 2013 on behalf of a client. Bouvier bought at 80 million dollars and sold the following day. Sotheby's fee has been reported at 3 million dollars. No buyer's premium applies to a private treaty sale, which is why the figure is directly comparable to the 127.5 million and not to the 450.3 million. - **2013-2017** Dmitry Rybolovlev `[documented]` (private sale) Bought from Bouvier at 127.5 million dollars, one day after Bouvier paid 80 million, in the belief that Bouvier was acting as his agent on a two per cent commission. Rybolovlev's identity as owner became public through a New Yorker report in early 2016. He sued Bouvier for fraud in several jurisdictions and decided to sell the collection. - **2017-present** Contested. Prince Badr bin Abdullah al-Saud named as buyer; the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman both named as principal `[disputed]` (purchase at auction) Christie's New York, 15 November 2017, hammer 400 million dollars, 450,312,500 dollars with premium. The Louvre Abu Dhabi announced a display in December 2017 and postponed it indefinitely in September 2018. The panel was in Paris in 2018 for examination by the C2RMF, was absent from the Louvre's 2019 retrospective, and has not been publicly exhibited since. Reporting has placed it on the yacht Serene, in Saudi storage, and reserved for a future museum at Al-Ula; none of these has a public documentary basis. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1958-06-25** Sotheby's, Cook Collection, 136 paintings - Hammer: GBP 45 - With premium: No buyer's premium was charged by London houses in 1958 - About 120 dollars at the time. Catalogued as Boltraffio. The buyer was recorded only as Kuntz. Kenneth Clark, Ellis Waterhouse and Gianni Salocchi were present. - **2005-04-09** St Charles Gallery, New Orleans, Sale of 9 and 10 April 2005, lot 664 - Estimate: USD 1,200 - 1,800 - Hammer: USD 1,000 as described by the buyer - With premium: USD 1,175 aggregate on the house prices-realised sheet - Catalogued as After Leonardo da Vinci, Christ Salvador Mundi, oil on cradled panel, 26 x 18 1/2 inches. The estate appraisal a year earlier had been 750 dollars as Continental School, 19th century, poor condition. A buyer's premium of 17.5 per cent on a 1,000 dollar hammer produces the 1,175 aggregate exactly; that schedule is DERIVED from the two published figures and has not been checked against a printed St Charles Gallery schedule. Wikimedia Commons states on its copy of the catalogue page that the lot sold for just under 10,000 dollars, which no source supports. - **2013-04** Sotheby's Private Sales, Private treaty - With premium: USD 80,000,000 net to the sellers - A private treaty sale carries no buyer's premium, so there is no hammer and premium to separate. Sotheby's fee reported at 3 million dollars. Bouvier resold the following day at 127.5 million. - **2017-11-15** Christie's, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, lot 9B - Estimate: Estimate on request in Christie's own lot record; a figure in the region of USD 100,000,000 was publicised around the sale - Hammer: USD 400,000,000 - With premium: USD 450,312,500 total, of which the fee is USD 50,312,500 - Bidding ran more than eighteen minutes between telephone clients and closed on a jump bid of 400 million. The fee is 12.578 per cent of hammer, which is a blended rate, not a schedule. It reconciles exactly against 25 per cent on the first 250,000 dollars, 20 per cent from 250,000 to 4,000,000, and 12.5 per cent above 4,000,000: 62,500 plus 750,000 plus 49,500,000 equals 50,312,500. That schedule is DERIVED from the arithmetic and has not been checked against a printed Christie's chart for November 2017. The lot was placed in a contemporary sale rather than an Old Master sale, a decision made by Loic Gouzer. Re-checked 2026-09-25 against Christie's own published data. The house lot-search service for sale 14995 returns lot 9 B, price realised USD 450,312,500, and the public lot page lot-6110563 prints the same figure, so the total is confirmed by two independent routes. Two further things come out of the house's own record and neither is usually reported. Christie's catalogues the picture under the heading Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), with no qualification of any kind, which is the house taking a position on the question this record exists to keep open. And the estimate field in the house's own data reads Estimate on request; the figure in the region of USD 100,000,000 was publicised around the sale rather than printed as a catalogue estimate. On the derived hammer, the schedule assumed here now has better standing: 25 per cent on the first USD 250,000, 20 per cent to USD 4,000,000 and 12.5 per cent above it reduces 48 of the 49 sold lots in sale 14995 to a round bid increment, and the 49 published prices sum to USD 785,942,250, which is the sale total Christie's results calendar prints, to the dollar. One lot does not reduce: lot 13 B, Warhol's Sixty Last Suppers at USD 60,875,000, gives USD 53,833,333.33 under the same schedule. No explanation for that single exception was found and none is offered here. USD 400,000,000 stays DERIVED. ## Open questions - Where is the painting? No accession number, loan agreement, exhibition label or conservation report has been published since 15 November 2017. - Who owns it? Prince Badr bin Abdullah al-Saud was named as the buyer, the Saudi embassy said he acted as agent for the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi, and other reporting names Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. No party has produced a document. - What did the C2RMF examination of 2018 actually conclude? The Louvre's printed book says entirely autograph; Antoine Vitkine's film reports anonymous officials saying Leonardo only contributed. The underlying report has not been published. - How many copies of Leonard de Vinci. Le Salvator Mundi were printed, and where are they? The print run has not been stated and the museum has denied the book exists. - Does the pre-1900 provenance belong to this panel? The 1913 Cook catalogue records no provenance before the 1900 purchase from Sir Charles Robinson. Every link back to Charles I is an identification argument. - Was the blessing hand first placed below the shoulder? The layer structure is suggestive but Modestini states the question cannot be settled without macro XRF scanning, which requires access to the object. - Which picture does the Commons file captioned as the Naples version actually show? The same file page names the Museo Diocesano in Naples and the Marquis de Ganay collection, which are two different paintings. - What was the St Charles Gallery buyer's premium schedule in April 2005? The 1,175 dollar aggregate reconciles to a 1,000 dollar bid at 17.5 per cent, but no printed schedule has been located. ## Sources - [1] Dianne Dwyer Modestini, 'History of the Salvator Mundi', Salvator Mundi Revisited. The restorer's own account of the 2005 purchase, the Cook and Kuntz provenance, the restoration, the 2008 National Gallery viewing, the Dallas offer and the 2013 sales. - [2] Dianne Dwyer Modestini, 'Copies', Salvator Mundi Revisited. The census of over thirty versions, the three that follow the Hollar details, and the dendrochronology of the Warsaw and Detroit panels. - [3] Dianne Dwyer Modestini, 'Pentimenti', Salvator Mundi Revisited. The thumb, the shifted hand, the incised finger contour, the repositioned stole, and the limits of X-ray and infrared on this paint structure. - [4] The Art Newspaper, 'What the Louvre's scientific examinations of the Salvator Mundi really revealed, according to the museum's own book', 13 April 2021. Gives the title, authors, publisher and contents of the withdrawn book, the Martinez preface and the Delieuvin conclusion. - [5] The Art Newspaper, 'Revealed: the first photograph of the Louvre's Leonardo book that was spiked over Salvator Mundi fiasco', 16 November 2022. Gives the 46-page format, the eight euro price, the Turin printing, the Louvre bookshop appearance, Modestini's chance discovery, and the museum's statement that no such publication exists. - [6] St Charles Gallery, New Orleans, Prices Realized sheet for the April 2005 sale, archived copy, listing lot 664 at an aggregate of 1,175. - [7] Wikipedia, 'Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)', consolidating the pre-1900 provenance claim, the census of versions and the published positions of Bambach, Zollner, Landrus, Franck, Hope and Daley. TERTIARY: flagged for replacement with the Christie's 2017 catalogue entry, Bambach's Leonardo Rediscovered (2019) and Zollner's catalogue raisonne. - [8] The Art Newspaper, 'The real reason why the Salvator Mundi didn't make it into the Louvre's Leonardo show', 7 April 2021, reporting the claims made in Antoine Vitkine's documentary The Savior for Sale, including the anonymous officials, the demanded label, and the September 2019 decision. - [9] Scott Reyburn, 'Five years since the $450m Salvator Mundi sale: a first-hand account of the nonsensical auction', The Art Newspaper, 15 November 2022. Gives the eighteen-minute bidding, the jump bid and the 100 million dollar estimate. - [10] Iconotheca, 'What a Sleeper Is, and Why They Still Happen', the market article this record extends, giving the 2005 lot wording and the 750 dollar estate appraisal alongside the Turner, Gentileschi, Cimabue and Frans Post cases. - [11] The Art Newspaper, 'Where is Salvator Mundi? In storage in Geneva - apparently', 19 August 2024. Reports Bernard Haykel, a Princeton professor described as a friend of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, telling the BBC the painting is in storage in Geneva and that MbS intends to display it eventually in a future Riyadh museum. The claim is Haykel's own account via the BBC, not a documentary record; no accession, loan or storage document has been published. - [12] USA Art News, 'TEFAF Maastricht: A Superior Salvator Mundi, and 5 Other Masterpieces', 12 March 2026. Reports Agnews of London offering the de Ganay Salvator Mundi, unpriced, at TEFAF Maastricht 2026, and gives its 1999 Sotheby's sale to its current owner - a provenance link not in the Ganay version's prior record. - [13] Christie's, 'Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Salvator Mundi'. The house's own lot record for the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, sale 14995, New York, 15 November 2017, lot 9 B. Prints the price realised USD 450,312,500 and gives the estimate as Estimate on request. Catalogues the picture as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) without qualification. Accessed 2026-09-25. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.