Description
Salvator Mundi – the most expensive painting of all time
Salvator Mundi (“Saviour of the World”) is the most mysterious and most expensive painting in the history of art. The work attributed to the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci was sold on 15 November 2017 at Christie’s in New York for an astonishing 450.3 million dollars – no painting has ever fetched a higher price. Our hand-painted reproduction on canvas brings this legendary subject into your home, painted in oil on canvas with full attention to Leonardo’s masterly detail.
A history full of twists
Leonardo da Vinci painted the Salvator Mundi between 1499 and 1510, in all likelihood for the French king Louis XII and his wife Anne of Brittany. The painting then passed into the collection of the English king Charles I, and after 1763 it disappeared from public view for more than a century. When it resurfaced in the 20th century it was so poorly preserved and so heavily overpainted that it was taken for an ordinary copy – in 1958 it sold for a mere 45 pounds. Only in 2005 did two New York art dealers discover it at a small auction in New Orleans, and years of restoration together with scientific analysis revealed the master’s hand. In 2011 the National Gallery in London exhibited it as an autograph work by Leonardo.
The record auction and the “male Mona Lisa”
The road to the record was steep: in 2013 the painting changed hands for around 80 million dollars, and four years later, after nineteen minutes of fevered bidding, it reached 450.3 million dollars at auction. Christie’s experts called it “the Holy Grail of Old Masters”, while the public came to love it as “the male Mona Lisa”. Since the sale the painting has not been publicly exhibited, which only deepens its mystique – and that is precisely why a reproduction remains the only way to admire this extraordinary subject up close.
What the Salvator Mundi depicts
Christ is shown frontally, robed in Renaissance blue. He blesses with his right hand, while in his left he holds a crystal orb symbolising the celestial sphere and his role as guardian of the world. Leonardo’s celebrated sfumato technique – the soft, smoky transitions between light and shadow – gives Christ’s face a mysterious, almost hypnotic expression that follows the viewer from every angle. The original is painted in oil on a walnut panel and measures 45.4 × 65.6 cm; our art painting on canvas preserves the composition and colour palette of the original.
A hand-painted reproduction for your home
Every reproduction of the painting Salvator Mundi is entirely hand-painted in oil on canvas – it is not a print, but a real painting created for you by an experienced artist. It is available in eight sizes, stretched on a wooden frame on request and in an elegant frame from our 3D range. The subject that cost collectors 450 million dollars can grace your living room or your office – or become a gift for someone who values timeless masterpieces.
- Subject: Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1499–1510
- Technique: hand-painted oil on canvas, painting reproduction
- Sizes: 8 dimensions, stretched on a wooden frame on request
- Fact: at 450.3 million dollars the original is the most expensive painting ever sold
