It is amazing to think that just 12 years earlier, in 2005, Salvator Mundi, the painting that has just broken all previous records to sell for $450.3 million, sold at a local auction for just $10,000. This so called “sleeper”—a term used to describe artworks of major worth that had hitherto slipped unnoticed—is expected to inspire a whole new generation of people to start clearing out lofts and visiting garage sales in search of forgotten masterpieces.
Bought by an anonymous buyer earlier this month at Christie’s, New York, Leonardo da Vinci’s long lost painting is now the most expensive artwork in history. Dating from around 1500, it is one of only 20 paintings in existence by the Renaissance master. It depicts the torso of Christ with one hand raised in a blessing, and holding a transparent orb in the other. Intriguingly, it is said to possess that same presence and uncanny strangeness as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Sotheby’s must be kicking themselves. In 1958 their experts in London failed to identify the painting and sold it for just £45. It then disappeared for a while until it resurfaced again at a local auction in Louisiana in 2005, where it was bought by a consortium of owners for $10,000. Counting an historian in their midst, the consortium had done their research, and had an inkling that this work had been mistakenly overlooked.
Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi restoration. Via: YouTube
They paid for it to be meticulously restored by the conservationist Dianne Dwyer Modestini in New York. The conservator’s account of removing the first layers of overpaint, and seeing what lay beneath is hugely exciting. The painting was in a dreadful state, centuries of neglect and overpainting had taken their toll. But when it dawned on her what she was working on, her “hands were shaking”, she went home thinking she “was crazy.” The consortium’s gamble had paid off.
Immediately people started to take notice and in 2011 it was included in the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery in London. The show’s curator authenticated it as the long-lost Leonardo da Vinci recorded in the collection of Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England. Now with the backing of a prestigious museum, it was sold to the Swiss businessman, Yves Bouvier in 2013 for $80 million. That same year he flipped it to Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127.5 million.
It was Rybolovlev who last week sold it at Christie’s for its staggering sum. But apart from the price, what marks out this sale is the fact that it was included in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, despite it being a work by an Old Master. Increasingly, auction departmental divides are being ignored to maximize the potential of the most significant works of value. This is expected to lead to a “best of the best” auction scenario. With the inclusion by Sotheby’s earlier this month, of one of Michael Schumacher’s winning Ferrari Formula 1 cars in its contemporary sale, this trend is only set to continue.
Christie’s marketing of the painting has been tremendous. Catalogued as the “The Last da Vinci” painting in private hands, this remarkable sale was achieved despite there remaining profound questions as to the provenance and authenticity of Salvator Mundi [Saviour of the World]. Art critic and writer Mark Hudson questions whether the work is actually by the Milanese master’s follower, Bernardino Luini. He goes on to add that if it is in fact a Leonardo da Vinci, it is certainly not a “masterpiece”, and certainly not worth such an exorbitant sum.
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Tears come from the heart and not from the brain. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Every action needs to be prompted by a motive. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
People react to fear, not love - they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Wisdom is the daughter of experience. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Truth was the only daughter of Time. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Art is never finished, only abandoned. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art ” - Leonardo da Vinci
While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake? ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Learning never exhausts the mind. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Nature never breaks her own laws. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes! ” - Leonardo da Vinci
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.” - Leonardo da Vinci
Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit. ” - Leonardo da Vinci
What was da Vinci's famous quote?
1. "Learning never exhausts the mind." 2. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Why is Leonardo da Vinci so great?
Although he is best known for his dramatic and expressive artwork, Leonardo also conducted dozens of carefully thought out experiments and created futuristic inventions that were groundbreaking for the time. His keen eye and quick mind led him to make important scientific discoveries, yet he never published his ideas.
What is a famous da Vinci painting quote?
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” “The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”
What is the meaning behind the Vitruvian Man?
What does the Vitruvian Man symbolize? Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man represents the "perfect man," based on the ancient knowledge of ratios and proportions present in human anatomy. The illustration depicts the naked, ideal, healthy form of a man.