‘Salvator Mundi’, the last Leonardo da Vinci painting in private hands sold for $450m after a fevered, 19-minute round of bidding at Christie’s in Manhattan, New York shattering the record for the most expensive piece of art ever sold.
“Salvator Mundi”, Latin for “saviour of the world”, is one of roughly 15 surviving works by Da Vinci and depicts Jesus Christ in a flowing robe, holding a crystal orb and raising his right hand in benediction.
The 67.5cm tall portrait, painted around 1500 and once owned by King Charles I of England, was presumed lost until its rediscovery in 2005.