Louvre casts doubts on authenticity of $450 million 'Leonardo'

When the Louvre in Paris announced that it had requested a loan of the Salvator Mundi ahead of its forthcoming Leonardo da Vinci show, it appeared that the world’s most expensive painting would finally be unveiled to the public.

But the museum has privately decided it will label the $450 million portrait of Christ merely as “from the workshop” of Leonardo - a move that would render it all but worthless and leave its Saudi owners humiliated, according to an art historian who has charted the painting’s extraordinary story.

Scholars continue to debate the provenance of the picture, which has been extensively restored.

Ben Lewis, author of The Last Leonardo, said: “The Louvre Paris have asked the Louvre Abu Dhabi if they could borrow it for their exhibition - that's official. But my inside sources at the Louvre, various sources, tell me that not many Louvre curators think this is an autograph [real] Leonardo da Vinci and if they did exhibit it, they really want to exhibit it as 'workshop'.

“So it is very unlikely it will be shown because the owner of this picture cannot possibly lend it to the Louvre Paris and see it exhibited as ‘Leonardo workshop’ - its value will go down to somewhere north of $1.5m.

"If a picture cannot show its face, that is really damning for the art world. It is almost like it has become the Saudi's latest political prisoner.”

The Salvator Mundi was sold in 2007 for just over $1,000 as a work “after Leonardo da Vinci”. A decade later, it sold as the real thing for $450 million in a sale at Christie’s New York that smashed all previous records and stunned the art world.

The buyer’s identity was shrouded in secrecy but later revealed to be Prince Badr bin Abdullah al Saud, a minor Saudi royal thought to be acting on behalf of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Lewis suggested that the Saudis paid such a high price because they believed that the other party engaged in the bidding was representative of a rival royal family. “At one point they suddenly upped their bid from $370m to $400m. That is very aggressive bidding. We can be pretty sure they thought they were bidding against the Qataris,” he said.

In fact, the under-bidder was a Chinese billionaire, Liu Yiqian, who said afterwards he had been “defeated” in the race to buy it. There are fewer than 20 Leonardos known to be in existence.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi announced plans to display the Salvator Mundi last September but cancelled with two weeks to go. Lewis said he believed the owners were put off by experts who have expressed doubt about the painting’s authenticity. Several scholars have suggested it is, at least in part, the work of one of da Vinci’s pupils.

Some have pointed to the orb in Christ’s hand, and the fact that there is no warping of the robes behind it, as a sign that it is not the work of Leonardo - an artist of his calibre would not have painted such a ‘flat’ image. But others say this could have been a deliberate effect to make the viewer gaze only upon the face of Christ.

The painting is said to be currently in a storage facility in Switzerland.

A spokesman for the Louvre was unavailable for comment.

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