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When Will This “Leonardo” Go Away? Probably Never!

October 16, 2019

Salvator Mundi is back in the news.  The big Leonardo exhibition is about to open at the Louvre and the curators are still waiting to see if the owner of “Salvator Mundi” will loan it.

Controversy about the authorship of the painting still rages on, but the museum wants to show the painting.  The owner, assumed to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has yet to reply.  One of the stumbling blocks, as reported in The Washington Post, might be that …the Louvre curators, who plan to display works “from the master’s circle” in the exhibition beside autograph Leonardos, have reserved the right to label the “Salvator Mundi” as they see fit.

So, if the work does appear in the show, and labeled as ‘Attributed To’ or ‘After’, then most of its value is lost.  I would assume, that after spending close to half a billion dollars on a painting, you would want to be 100% sure the art world accepts it as authentic.  And if it isn’t, maybe you want to get your money back?

Source: The $450 mililon ‘Salvator Mundi’ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci is unlikely to be in a big show at the Louvre – The Washington Post

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