Salvator Mundi $450,000,000 Performance Art?
Salvator Mundi Attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci, enhanced 3 meg file for study.
1499–1510 Oil on walnut panel, 45.4 cm × 65.6 cm (25.8 in × 19.2 in). Acquired by Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism for the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Currently owned by Mohammad bin Salman. Kazakina, Katya (11 June 2019). "Da Vinci's $450 Million Masterpiece Is Kept on Saudi Prince's Yacht: Artnet". Bloomberg.
Is The Salvator Mundi ITSO Leonardo Da Vinci Performance Art?
I think the nay sayers know nothing about the art market at that level. “Art is in the eye of the beholder!” It’s a sport to billionaires, numbers are just a computer game.
They pay the same price for graffiti artists if the painting is famous. Or a bet on a race horse. They keep the artwork and the race horse if they like them, then put them back in the game. The team for this Salvator Mundi made the painting famous among academics first. A brilliant strategy!
OOPART Art And The Holy Grail Bloodline
Fine art market sports players do an amazing community service for artists. With massive amounts of money out of their own pockets they promote artists of all kinds. Past and present and future.
Art market sports players remind the world there is art. And that there is great art, even cover versions. And that great people of today’s world hang it on their walls. Art sports players also build amazing museums for art out of their own pockets. True art for art’s sake! Thank You Thank You Thank You!!! I can’t Thank You enough!!!
If the Salvator Muni in question is real or not, it’s famous and the scandal is a bonus. We’re still talking about it! Conceptually the whole finding-and-proving story is very interesting. And the restoration on restoration on restoration until no technical person can tell. A conceptual artist would do the same thing for a piece of paper. Great effort, I love the intricacy, well done!!!
I think the pro sayers know nothing of Leonardo Da Vinci and his beliefs. Nor his content strategies or his drawing. I studied classical drawing in London, Da Vinci style. One of my drawings gat exhibited at the Royal Academy. I’m a content art historian of 10 years. I specialized in symbolism and stories within stories. It’s Leonardo’s specialty and what he got given residencies and commissions for.
Leonardo wasn’t the only artist to practice this form of story within story telling. Rubens, Botticelli, Crivelli and others had their slant on it. It’s why they were famous in the first place “for those who have eyes to see.” The real Da Vinci Code. So when I don’t see it I scratched my head. I’ve been studying this Salvator Mundi, off and on, for 5 years or so to find something. Some paintings take two years, but that’s at most.
While the crystal ball is a statement symbol, there is no displacement in the cloth behind it. Crystal balls don’t do that. Everybody into Da Vinci knows he’s a purist. Especially for a statement piece in the foreground.
Content wise his up pointing fingers should point to something in the background. The background behind this Salvator Mundi is blacked out. His code in the folds of the cloth is unclear or. nonexistent. Those would give the crystal ball some context and his other story. Is there anything underneath the blacked background? What were the fabric folds before restoration?
I made a small documentary/workshop on how Da Vinci codes his paintings and stories within stories. With his Annunciation for an example….
Summary Findings
What is this famous Salvator Mundi painting?
Scraps from around that era, glued and painted together?
An unfinished ITSO by one of Leonardo da Vinci's students?
An old forgery that got lost in translation?
A concept art performance?
My bet, from what I geek out, on is No 1. But it doesn’t diminish the $ value of the painting as art for art sake. If you were a billionaire and buying a painting for your grandmother’s 70th birthday gift, would you give her Da Vinci or Renoir?
Deborah
Coded History
