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A rare painting by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci of Christ holding a crystal orb has sold for a record 450 million US dollars at a New York auction.
The painting, known as “Salvator Mundi,” Italian for “Savior of the World,” was sold Wednesday by Christie’s auction house.
The highest price paid for a work of art at auction had been 179.4 million US dollars, for Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O)” in May 2015, also at Christie’s in New York.
The highest known sale price for any artwork had been 300 million US dollars for Willem de Kooning’s “Interchange” in September 2015, which was sold privately.
Scholars believe the da Vinci painting is one of few works by Leonardo to survive the centuries since his death and the only one in private hands.
Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519 and there are fewer than 20 of his paintings in existence.
It had been guaranteed by a backer to sell for at least 100 million US dollars.
Christie’s has exhibited the painting in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York in the weeks prior to Wednesday’s sale.
(AP)
