Graphic shows most expensive paintins sold.
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ART

Leonardo da Vinci shatters auction record

By Duncan Mil

November 16, 2017 - On a historic night at Christie’s in New York, Salvator Mundi, a depiction of Christ as “Saviour of the World” by Leonardo da Vinci, sold for $450,312,500, including buyer’s premium, becoming the most expensive painting ever sold at auction.

The painting shows Christ with one hand raised, the other holding a glass sphere.

It was sold at auction in London in 1958 for $60. By then the painting was believed to be the work of a follower of Leonardo and not the work of the Renaissance master himself.

Christie's insist the painting is authentic. “There is extraordinary consensus it is by Leonardo,” said Nicholas Hall, the former co-chairman of old master paintings at Christie’s.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 16/11/2017; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Associated Press, Christie’s
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