Eight years since the Salvator Mundi sold for $450 Million

The $450 Million Mystery: Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi

When Salvator Mundi sold at Christie’s New York in 2017 for a staggering $450.3 million, it shattered every record in the art world. Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, the painting became the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction—and one of the most controversial.

Why such a high price? Authentic works by Leonardo are among the rarest in existence. Fewer than 20 paintings are widely accepted as being by his hand, and Salvator Mundi is the only one held in a private collection. The rest live permanently in major museums.

The road to this historic sale was anything but smooth. Discovered in 2005 at a small regional auction in the U.S.—covered in overpaint and long thought to be a copy—it sold for just $1,175. Two New York dealers, Robert Simon and Alex Parish, took a chance on it. After years of research and painstaking restoration by expert Dianne Modestini, the painting was finally attributed to Leonardo and included in the National Gallery’s landmark 2011 exhibition in London.

The auction itself was a spectacle. Nearly 1,000 people packed into Rockefeller Center, with millions watching online. A 20-minute bidding war erupted, eventually boiling down to two determined collectors. When the hammer dropped at $450 million, gasps turned to applause.

Still, Salvator Mundi is not without controversy. Some scholars remain skeptical, pointing to heavy restoration and the painting’s murky provenance—there are no confirmed records of it between 1763 and 1900. Others argue it may have been completed by one of Leonardo’s students.

Today, the painting’s location remains unknown. It’s widely believed to have been purchased by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman through an intermediary. Since the sale, Salvator Mundi has vanished from public view, adding yet another layer of intrigue to the world’s most expensive—and most debated—masterpiece.