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How this $100M da Vinci masterpiece flew under the radar for centuries
NY Post ^ | November 14, 2017 | Max Jaeger

Posted on 11/14/2017 10:38:43 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom

It watched as its then-owner, King Charles I, was beheaded in 1649.

It was hanging in Buckingham Palace back when it was still called Buckingham House in 1703.

It survived the Nazis’ 1940 London Blitz when its keepers abandoned it in their basement.

By 1958, its origins had become so lost in time that it was sold for a paltry $90 to a collector from Louisiana.

The long, strange journey of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterwork “Salvator Mundi” takes its next turn Wednesday at Christie’s, when it goes under the hammer for a hoped-for $100 million.

It is the first Leonardo to emerge in nearly a century, and one of just 16 surviving paintings by the Renaissance Italian polymath.

“Salvator Mundi” — which translates to “Savior of the World” and depicts Jesus Christ holding an earth-like glass orb — was nearly forgotten forever during its 500-year journey from Italy to the Big Apple.

“We came pretty close to losing it,” Alan Wintermute, a Christie’s vice president and specialist in Old Master paintings, told The Post.

“It’s so rare that anything this important reappears in the way it has that you can’t help but be excited.”

Battered by time and marred by ham-handed attempts to restore it, the so-called “last da Vinci” was, for centuries, thought to be no more than a pupil’s copy of the original.

Leonardo is believed to have produced the work — painted in particularly expensive oil pigments on a walnut panel — sometime around 1500, most likely for then-King of France Louis XII, according to Dr. Robert Simon of Robert Simon Fine Art, who helped authenticate the work.

Simon called the French provenance “speculation, but informed speculation,” adding that the earliest written record of its ownership goes back to King Charles I of England

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Chit/Chat; History; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: davinci; godsgravesglyphs; leonardo; leonardodavinci; salvatormundi; saudiarabia
What an incredible find and a darn good 90 dollar investment too.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

1 posted on 11/14/2017 10:38:43 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Just maybe this painting was inspired by the self portrait of
Albrecht Durer; a painter during the German Renaissance.
Albrecht traveled to Italy in 1494, and remained there till 1495. The trip had a strong effect on Durer; echoes of Italian art would be apparent in most of his paintings, drawings and graphics for the next ten years.


2 posted on 11/14/2017 10:48:57 PM PST by lee martell
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; pax_et_bonum; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

3 posted on 11/14/2017 10:53:56 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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Da Vinci’s ‘male Mona Lisa’ expected to sell for $100M — Salvatori Mundi (video)
The New York Post | October 10, 2017 | 3:19pm | By Tamar Lapin
Posted on 10/10/2017 7:33:40 PM PDT by Swordmaker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3593807/posts


4 posted on 11/14/2017 10:54:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Is that a cleft in the chin?


5 posted on 11/14/2017 11:16:18 PM PST by bushpilot2
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To: bushpilot2

I believe that’s a cleft palette.


6 posted on 11/15/2017 1:34:30 AM PST by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: SunkenCiv

My wife and I were lucky enough to catch the opening exhibition of Da Vinci’s newly restored Adoration of the Magi in Florence as well as the restored Last Supper in Milan on our vacation last Spring. Awe-inspiring.


7 posted on 11/15/2017 2:07:09 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Bah, I’d take it to Hobby Lobby and have it reframed.


8 posted on 11/15/2017 2:57:45 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Ken H

9 posted on 11/15/2017 5:27:34 AM PST by null and void (The internet gave everyone a mouth. It gave no one a brain.)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Looks like an androgyne.


10 posted on 11/15/2017 5:29:12 AM PST by onedoug
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To: onedoug

Transgender Mona Lisa?


11 posted on 11/15/2017 5:38:40 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: null and void

I’m here all week!


12 posted on 11/15/2017 5:50:23 AM PST by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

What an incredible find and a darn good 90 dollar investment too.

...

But those were 1958 dollars.


13 posted on 11/15/2017 5:56:25 AM PST by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: lee martell

What an interesting observation! I too noticed that this looks more like a German Jesus rather than an Italian Jesus.

I know that this is attributed to Da Vinci...but it doesn’t even remind me of his other work.

But, then, again, Leonardo could do anything any way he wanted to!


14 posted on 11/15/2017 6:25:00 AM PST by left that other site (For America to have CONFIDENCE in our future, we must have PRIDE in our HISTORY... DJT)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

How did he ever paint that glass globe? Awesome countenance, too.


15 posted on 11/15/2017 6:27:08 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Should have taken it to the Antique Roadshow!


16 posted on 11/15/2017 6:58:47 AM PST by zeugma (I always wear my lucky red shirt on away missions!)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Nice!


17 posted on 11/15/2017 8:08:49 AM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Like most art, it’s who, not what. Other pieces, equally old, and, technically & visually appealing are deemed basically worthless.

Painting: $98

Signature: $100,999,902


18 posted on 11/15/2017 8:30:39 AM PST by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!�)
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To: zeugma

The American Pickers would have paid $200 for it.


19 posted on 11/15/2017 8:33:33 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: lee martell

Except that the particular Self Portrait in a Fur Collared Robe (which I assume is what is referred to in that theory) has been positioned as circa 1500.

I had been unaware of the magnitude of Durer’s influence in Germany — it was not understood by me until readings in recent years. While peripherally aware of his work, it is like thinking Michelangelo was incidental to Italian art — I did not understand how he stood like a crossroads in german art.

I am partway through a new history of the Borgia family and 15th century Italian history is so different when you look at the conflicts during that century rather than just the art.


20 posted on 11/15/2017 11:07:26 AM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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