Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” was just sold for $450.3 million with fees, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold at an auction.
After an intense 19 minutes of bidding wars against four very competitive bidders (3 via phone, 1 in the room), the work of art was finally sold to an undisclosed buyer for the overwhelming $400 million price tag.
The auction is said to have been the most intensely marketed auction event in the art world, magnetizing the industry’s most elite to come and witness such a momentous occasion—the selling of the masterwork that dates way back to 1500, deemed as ‘The Last da Vinci’.
Some of the art world’s top players were in attendance at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters, like top dealers David Zwirner, Marc Payot of Hauser & Wirth, and Larry Gagosian.
“This is the most important old master painting to have been sold at auction in my lifetime,” muses Nicholas Hall, former co-chairman of old master paintings at Christie’s.
And so we bid a hearty congratulations to the highest bidder, who is now the owner of an original Da Vinci—one that is probably more expensive than our own existence. Cheers to you!
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