Salvator Mundi
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
1499 - 1510
Painting
In 2017, Salvator Mundi was sold by Christie’s in New York for $450.3 million, the most expensive painting ever sold at a public auction at that time. Despite the fact that this painting sold for such a high price, there is quite a bit of controversy around its origin.
Purchased in 2005 by two art dealers in New Orleans, no one recognized the work as a da Vinci. Worms had infected the wood support; at one point, it had been inadequately restored and overpainted. The overpainting was stripped away, missing sections were restored, and the investors believed they had a da Vinci painting in their hands. After years of analysis and research, it was included as a lost original in a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at London’s National Gallery in 2011—although some specialists still dispute that it is a da Vinci.
The painting has not been publicly exhibited since the 2017 Christie's auction, and since late 2020 has been in storage in Saudi Arabia reportedly awaiting a museum and cultural center to be completed in Al-'Ula.
Samson and a Philistine
Artist: Giambologna
1560-62
Sculpture
This work, which stands at just over two-meters tall, depicts a biblical episode in which the Nazirite leader, Samson, who had superhuman strength, has single-handedly slayed an army of Philistines (The Book of Judges: "And he (Samson) found a new jawbone of an ass, and put his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith").
This carved marble statue is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK.
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