World’s most expensive painting might not appear in Louvre’s Leonardo da Vinci 500th anniversary show. Here’s why

Owner of US$450 million Salvator Mundi purportedly by Leonardo da Vinci may not want to risk devaluation if work deemed to have been painted by artist’s pupils

Controversy over painting’s authenticity has intensified, particularly since new light has been shed on a crucial meeting between five da Vinci experts

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The painting Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci on display at Christie’s auction house in London. It went on to be sold for a record-shattering US$450.3 million at Christie’s New York in November 2017. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:00pm, 21 Oct 2019Updated: 7:23pm, 22 Oct 2019

The world’s most expensive painting, the Salvator Mundi , purportedly by Leonardo da Vinci, was supposed to go on display next week in the world’s most famous museum, the Louvre in Paris, in a blockbuster exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death. Barring a last-minute surprise, however, the painting will be a no-show.

The Salvator Mundi sold for a record-shattering US$450.3 million in 2017 (the work went on display at Christie’s Hong Kong office in October 2017). But in the two years since the sale at Christie’s in New York, controversy over the painting’s attribution has intensified.

The Louvre has long said it wanted the Salvator Mundi in its show. The exhibition’s curators, Vincent Delieuvin and Louis Frank, explicitly requested it from the owner, reportedly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (the same Saudi ruler whom the CIA has accused of ordering the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi).

The opening of “Leonardo da Vinci” is just days away, but, according to museum spokeswoman Céline Dauvergne, “We are still waiting for an answer.”

A Christie’s employee with Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi on display in an auction room in London in 2017. Photo: AP

The silence is excruciating, and hard to fathom. But it may be that the owner is worried about the consequences of lending the work, and awaiting assurances the Louvre is refusing to give.