A brand-new museum for the controversial and record-breaking ‘Salvator Mundi’ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci will soon be built in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud (MBS), who in 2017 bought the painting attributed ― amid a flurry of controversy ― to the Renaissance master for the record price of 450 million dollars, is now having a special gallery built to have the painting on exhibit in his country.
A renowned art historian from Oxford, Martin Kemp, mentioned this during a conference at the literary festival of Cheltenham in the UK.
“The ‘Salvator Mundi’ is in Saudi Arabia and the country is building a special art gallery for it that will soon be finished, I believe in 2024”, said Kemp, who in the past was one of the experts who leaned strongly towards attributing the work to Leonardo.
The art historian expressed some reservations regarding his having to be “convinced to go to see the painting in Saudi” due to the “unacceptable” situation with regards to human rights in the country.
The desert kingdom is blacklisted by much of the international community.
Nonetheless, Kemp said that he would be ready to go to Saudi Arabia if his presence were to be helpful to bring the painting “back to see the light of day”.
A real ‘diva’ in the art world, since the painting was sold by the auction house Christie’s, the “Salvator Mundi” is estimated to have been painted around 1500 by Leonardo with the help of one or more of his students.
The painting has earned the nickname of “the male version of the Mona Lisa”.
It shows Christ in the act of blessing with one hand while, with the other, he holds a small crystal globe.
After the sale for an unsurpassed amount of money in the auction market, several doubts were raised about the painting’s authenticity.
Last year, the Prado museum in Madrid joined others in professing that the painting was not the work of Leonardo’s hand, but rather of his students under his supervision.
Since 2017, when it was shown by Christie’s, the ‘Salvator Mundi’ has not been seen in public.
Before that date, in 2011, it was included in a Leonardo exhibit at the National Gallery in London, while for the following five years many were wondering where the painting had vanished to.
One of the most daring stories, in addition to the usual suspect, a Swiss vault, was MBS’s yacht, with the inevitable worries that the salinity of such an environment could have on the painting’s state of conservation.
Saudi Arabia is pouring enormous investments into its cultural institutions.
Next year it plans to open the vast Wadi AlFann complex, in the north west of the country, curated by Iwona Blazwick, from the UK, who had curated the Whitechapel Gallery for decades, who was recruited as consultant for the project.
