The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and behaviour. TINDERA: Okay, so to recap, when it sold in 1980, it was expected to sell for $10 million, but ended up going for half that. CBS CLIP, BILL GATES: Well, that's simply based on taking the stock I own in Microsoft and doing some type of multiplication. The London art dealer Philip Mould called the idea of including Salvator Mundi in a contemporary sale inspired. On the telephone in this room at $28 million. According to a CNBC report, the median net worth of someone who is 66 years old, which is Gates' age is about $266,000. Usually estimated at "over 50 M" or "between 50 and 60 million Euros". Within two days he sold it to Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. The documentary covers much of the same ground as The Lost Leonardo, but less stylishly, with too many stock establishing shots of cities. Leonardo da Vinci was an artist and engineer who is best known for his paintings, notably the Mona Lisa (c. 150319) and the Last Supper (149598). Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is one of the most intriguing personalities in the history of Western art. On June 11, 2017, Ms. Gund revealed that she intended to use the proceeds from the sale of the painting for a specific purpose: to create a fund that supports criminal justice reform and seeks to reduce mass incarceration in the United States. A scene from Saviour for Sale, a second documentary about the Salvator Mundi, by French journalist Antoine Vitkine (Credit: Zadig Productions). If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to ourFacebookpage or message us onTwitter. Twenty-eight million. Soon, the painting was on its way to Christie's. There is so much information in the public sphere that everyone can have the illusion of being an insider. TINDERA: Slicing up and selling off a beautiful manuscript or book is not without precedent, though, Robert explained to us. The only non-Western modern artwork listed is that of the Chinese-French painter Zao Wouki's oil painting Juin-Octobre 1985, which was sold for $65 million in 2018. It would not draw more than the Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450 million. 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PETERSON-WITHORN: And the fifth was a drawing by Michelangelo called The Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist, which also sold to the Getty Museum in 1993, for $6.3 million. He was also frequently consulted as a technical adviser in the fields of architecture, fortifications, and military matters, and he served as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. Mona Lisa is not only Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting but the entire world's most famous painting. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. But some have said that's because he was left-handed, and he didnt want his ink to smear. From about 1483 to 1486, he worked on the altar painting The Virgin of the Rocks, a project that led to 10 years of litigation between the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, which commissioned it, and Leonardo; for uncertain purposes, this legal dispute led Leonardo to create another version of the work in about 1508. Apparently, Hammer had made a habit of buying things with Occidental Petroleum money. When Leonardo was about 15, his father, who enjoyed a high reputation in the Florentine community, apprenticed him to artist Andrea del Verrocchio. He also considered a painting done by Renaissance artist Pontormo, which was purchased by the Jay Paul Getty Museum for $35.2 million at Christie's in 1989. Nonetheless, the exhibition went a long way toward legitimising a shaky attribution. She even has her own mailbox. (According to contemporary sources, Leonardo was commissioned to create three more pictures, but these works have since disappeared or were never done.) The New York Times confirmed rumours that the Louvre wouldn't accede to bin Salman's demand that his painting be displayed in the same room as the Mona Lisa, giving it near-equal status. TINDERA: That average of every expert opinion worked out to about $130 million. He also did not apply himself to higher mathematicsadvanced geometry and arithmeticuntil he was 30 years old, when he began to study it with diligent tenacity. Here's how much the artwork is worth! Most art world observers thought the Salvator Mundi would be the centrepiece of a new museum or art centre in the region, but the painting has not been glimpsed in public since. So, in discussing what the Codex might be worth today, Robert Simon brought up a recent sale of a da Vinci, which was of a teeny, tiny three-inch by three-inch drawing of a bear's head, which sold in July of this year for $12 million. PETERSON-WITHORN: The person who ended up winning the auction was Armand Hammer, the 82-year-old multimillionaire chairman of oil and gas giant Occidental Petroleum. Leonardos gracious but reserved personality and elegant bearing were well-received in court circles. Whoever cut it up would be pilloried forever. His was the last name on the 1988 provenance list; painting came from "a private collection in Arizona". They reflected the importance of the painting and that some of the bidders were conscious that the price would go higher than their bids. There are all sorts of factors that come into play: condition, provenance. Antoine Vitkine's film Saviour for Sale is most notable for some explosive additions about what might have happened behind the scenes at the Louvre. It's on the last telephone at $28 million. "I'm absolutely sure that six months down the road or a year, there's going to be some kind of new information, whether true or not, that's going to blow up everywhere in the news media," Dalsgaard says. Among Leonardos pupils at this time were Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Ambrogio de Predis, Bernardino de Conti, Francesco Napoletano, Andrea Solari, Marco dOggiono, and Salai. In total, Christies said, 27,000 people had seen the work on a pre-sale tour with stops in Hong Kong, London and San Francisco. When Bill Gates bought the manuscript, rather than naming it the Codex Gates after himself, he decided to rename it the Codex Leicester after an earlier owner. And we can go into the auction record and look at previous copies of that exact same book, when it sold, where it sold, what its estimate was, what it brought. $450 million That price more than doubled the. The Virgin and Child with St Anne was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1510. The current record price is approximately US$450.3 million (which includes commission), paid for Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi (c.1500). Cole was the first to report, in March 2020, the existence of a 46-page booklet the Louvre prepared for publication but never released, which asserts that the piece is an authentic Leonardo. So of course, da Vinci never called it the Codex Leicester or the Codex Hammer. Oprah Winfrey had bought the painting in November 2006 at Christie's for nearly $88 million. The Met has since returned the coffin to Egypt. Freeman's was founded in 1805, and is actually America's oldest auction house. The Nahmad family bought Suprematist Composition in 2008 at Sotheby's, New York, for $60,002,500 ($76million in 2021 dollars) from the heirs of Kazimir Malevich. He also pulled together a list of artwork that he found it to be similar to. Leonardo da Vincis total output in painting is really rather small; there are less than 20 surviving paintings that can be definitely attributed to him, and several of them are unfinished. Leonardo da Vinci not only developed his skill in drawing, painting and sculpting during his apprenticeship, but through others working in and around the studio, he picked up knowledge in such diverse fields as mechanics, carpentry, metallurgy, architectural drafting and chemistry. The inflation adjustment may change as recent inflation rates are often revised. What is Leonardo da Vinci best known for? In contrast, there are currently only nine pre-1875 paintings among the listed top 89, and none created between 1635 and 1874. But, it makes up only about 0.1% of Gates' $134 billion fortune, which we estimated for the Forbes 400 this year. She tells BBC Culture, "Since then, Dianne Modestini continued to work on it. TINDERA: Gates is up against a group from a bank in Milan thats sitting in the front of the Christie's salesroom. In this episode of Priceless, staff writer Michela Tindera and deputy wealth editor Chase Peterson-Withorn explain how Forbes determines the value of a one-of-a-kind Leonardo da Vinci manuscript that Bill Gates purchased in 1994. Somewhere in Saudi Arabia, hidden away by order of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, is the world's most expensive painting, Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi. The rest are owned by museums around the world. Salvator Mundi, the long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ commissioned by King Louis XII of France more than 500 years ago, has sold at Christies in New York for $450.3m, including auction house premium, shattering the world record for any work of art sold at auction. At an auction held at Christie's New York in 2016 during a contemporary art event, Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci turned into the most expensive painting ever sold, selling for $450 million at the end of a nineteen-minute bidding war. I'm an art dealer in New York. PETERSON-WITHORN: So I thought this was super fascinating that you could actually consider a work of art as something that could not only hold value and appreciate in value, but could also be a business, generating income for its owner over time. PETERSON-WITHORN: And in fact, that fall he had just appeared atop our Forbes 400 ranking of the richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of $9.35 billion. But no one thought it was still worth the $30.8 million Gates paid for it. He Died in May 2, 1519 in Amboise, Kingdom of France.His Famous works includes Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man Style/Period: High Renaissance Biography. The painting was sold in November 2017,[1][2] through the auction house Christie's in New York City. Rybolovlevs spokesman, Brian Cattell, told the Wall Street Journal the family hoped the sale will finally bring to an end a very painful chapter. Leonardo da Vinci: Last Supper. In New York last night, he said he had never doubted the piece would break records. Hammer somehow convinced the courts he was increasing shareholder value. A Belgian banker and collector who bought it in 1939 for $18,000. ARCHIVAL CLIP OF ARMAND HAMMER: I guess I'm wearing a great many hats. I expected to pay much more. Renaissance artist, inventor, polymath, musician, and architect who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper and drew the iconic Vitruvian Man. Leonardo grew up on his fathers familys estate, where he was treated as a legitimate son and received the usual elementary education of the day: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. Alan Wintermute, a senior specialist in old master paintings at Christies in London, called it the holy grail of old masters. [15] Not listed here in this list is Chinese painter Wang Shaofei's The High Sun, which was appraised for $74 million in 2017.[16]. Five hundred years later, the Codex is in such good condition, in part because it hasn't changed hands many times. DARREN WINSTON: Once we've decided that the book is worth looking at for its condition, for its provenance. One of two pastel versions; another two painted versions (and lithography) exist, all created by Munch. TINDERA: Hypothetically though, Simon explained that our logic of taking one drawing and reviewing the sale price of that to extrapolate what a whole manuscript filled with drawings might be worth was something he considered in his own appraisal. As a master artist, Leonardo maintained an extensive workshop in Milan, employing apprentices and students. In Verrocchios renowned workshop Leonardo received multifaceted training that included painting and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts. The painting sold for $119,922,500, Picassos Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) sold at Christie's in New York for $106,482,500, Lhomme qui Marche I (1961) by Alberto Giacometti sold for 65,001,250 ($105,182,398) at Sothebys in London, Picassos Boy With a Pipe (1905) sold at Sotheby's in New York for $104,168,000, Gustav Klimts Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912)went under the hammer at Christies New York and sold for $87,936,000, Francis Bacons Triptych (1976) sold for $85.9m to oligarch Roman Abramovich, A Chinese 18th century Qianlong dynasty porcelain vase sold for 53,100,000 ($85,921,461) at Bainbridges auction house in London, Dora Maar au Chat (1941) by Pablo Picasso sold for 51,560,080 ($83,429,503) at Sotheby's in London, Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet (1890) by Vincent van Gogh sold for $82,500,000 (50,985,692) at Christies in New York, Thank you all for your bidding, said Pylkknen. ARCHIVAL CLIP-STEPHEN MASSEY, CHRISTIES: The Leonardo da Vinci Codex Hammer. The sale of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers was the first time a "modern" (in this case 1888) painting became the record holder, as opposed to the old master paintings which previously had dominated the market. ", https://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/art/art-sales-russian-buyers-inject-confidence-into-old-master-marke/, Picasso piece sets record for art sold at auction, qatar may have purchased Warhol's 'Eight Elvises', "Nahmads confirm Picasso's $115m flower girl will go to Paris", "Rockefeller Picasso sells for $115 million including feesauthor=Robert Frank", "DIC Sells 'Anna's Light' Painting For Y10.3bn Gain", "Regarding extraordinary profit associated with the sale of a certain painting owned by the company and revision of its consolidated operating result forecast", "How Basquiat Became the $60 Million Man", "A Basquiat Sells for 'Mind-Blowing' $110.5 Million at Auction", A Monet Sells for $110.7 Million, an Auction High for an Impressionist Work, "Qatar bought Ford House's $100-million Cezanne", "$100M for Czanne painting? PETERSON-WITHORN: Thanks for listening to Priceless. And it was, you know, a thrilling project to be involved with. One of the sources says the Louvre concluded that Leonardo merely "contributed to the painting," but that bin Salman would only approve the loan if the Salvator Mundi were labelled an authentic Leonardo. Leonardo is sometimes credited as the inventor of the tank, helicopter, parachute, and flying machine, among other vehicles and devices, but later scholarship has disputed such claims. However, we should probably note that it seems unlikely that as the owner of the Codex, Gates would actually do this. We know quite a bit about Leonardo's life from a mini-biography by Giorgio Vasari, a Leonardo fanboy and the world's first art historian.Born a nobody, Leonardo was a charismatic and complicated man self confident and not, driven and not, distracted and not. Yves Bouvier, a Swiss art dealer, bought the painting from the New York dealers for $83 million, reportedly on behalf of his client, a Russian oligarch named Dmitry Rybolovlev, though this is disputed by Mr Bouvier. Early Life: Verrocchio's Pupil. Its the last painting by Leonardo, the greatest of all Renaissance artists, and it had an appeal to collectors from all parts of the world., Every major scholar of Leonardos work accepts the picture and has for the past decade, he said, addressing questions over the paintings authenticity and condition, adding: Its not in flawless condition, its 500 years old and absolutely has the presence and condition of a true Leonardo.. This sale tripled the previous record, and introduced a new era in top art sales. CLIP OF BILL GATES: Taking Leonardo's notebook and translating them so everybody can understand the way that da Vinci thought a little better than before is very important. To him, it was just his collection of scientific observations and illustrations and writings, mostly focused on the study of water. She is a captivating, elegant presence on screen, with a whispery voice and wide eyes behind signature black or red-framed glasses. Most observers agree that it is likely stashed in the Middle East, but some have speculated that it is stored in a tax-free zone in Geneva or even on the Prince's half-a-billion-dollar yacht. And Lewis points out that as the art market has enlarged, our world view itself has changed. But Christie's declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Gates never responded to our questions. It looks interesting. French President Emmanuel Macron pictured in 2018 with the owner of the Leonardo, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (Credit: Photo by Bandar Algaloud/Getty Images), "The Louvre is supported by the government, the ministry of culture and ultimately Macron," Cole tells BBC Culture. At one point, a telephone bidder jumped in, pushing the price from $332m to $350m. They brought it to Dianne Modestini, a highly respected restorer, who removed decades of grime and overpainting, and was the first to suspect it might be a true Leonardo. In cases like these, that's why we have to turn to the experts who know more about this than us. TINDERA: So keeping all of those things in mind and knowing what he does about the Codex today. The sale of Salvator Mundi, which was painted around 1500 and presumed lost until early this century, was Rybolovlevs largest to date. He had an exceedingly inquisitive mind and made strenuous efforts to become erudite in languages, natural science, mathematics, philosophy, and history, among other subjects. Why do bad things happen to "As long as this painting is hidden from the world and the future and fate of this painting is unknown, it's going to be clouded in a realm of mystery and the world will be ready to read anything new. In The Lost Leonardo, Evan Beard, a Bank of America executive who deals with art as investment, talks about the common buyers' motive of using artworks as collateral for other financial manoeuvres. After the sale, Pylkknen said the sale had been his ultimate privilege. That included footing the bill for not only the Codex he purchased for the $5 million in 1980, but also the tens of millions of dollars spent creating his own art museum in Los Angeles. At one point, Pylkknen remarked: Historic moment, well wait as the the bidding went back and forth, pausing at just over $200m as it rose to break the auction record. Our 1994 story said Hammer was a master at litigation, and the aggrieved shareholders had to settle to keep building costs at $60 million. And my enjoyment in owning these wonderful works of art. The painting, which dates to around 1500, was lost to history for more than 200 years, was damaged and badly restored, and was sold and resold as a minor work, probably by a Leonardo acolyte. Ford House couldn't refuse", "Secret $100 Million Czanne Sale in Detroit artnet News", "Chteau Ptrus Makes a Record-Breaking Saleof Art", Roman Abramovich brings home the $86.3m Bacon and the $33.6m Freud, "Femme assise prs d'une fentre (Marie-Thrse), 1932", Auction; `Blue' Picasso Breaks Record at $51.7 Million, Works by Johns and de Kooning Sell for $143.5 Million, "Russian Billionaire Takes 74% Loss on $85 Million Gauguin", "Now hanging at the Art Institute: Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin's new, $100 million Basquiat canvas", "Ken Griffin Buys Basquiat Painting for More Than $100 Million", The Getty secures masterpiece portrait by Titian, Mark Rothko painting sets post-war auction record, Hopper Painting Sells for Record $91.9 Million at Christies, "ARTnews: Cohen Buys Two Works from Wynn in $120M Deal", David Hockney Painting Sells for $90 Million, Smashing Record for Living Artist, "Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale Fine Art Auction Search Results Christie's", "Revealed: $72.8m Rockefeller Rothko has gone to Qatar", https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-heirs-of-a-jewish-banker-are-taking-a-japanese-company-to-court-over-an-allegedly-nazi-looted-van-gogh/ar-AA15sviM?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cc9460cf2a05415db49f7eb48ba01da2, "How Robert Rauschenberg 'rewrote the rules of the game', "Report: Alice Walton Was Buyer of Record-Breaking $88.8 M. Rauschenberg at Christie's", A Warhol Leads a Night of Soaring Prices at Christies, Andy Warhol's "Triple Elvis" auction results, "Basquiat's In This Case headlines Christie's inaugural 21st Century Evening Sale at $93,105,000". Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol are the best-represented artists in the list. A tempera and oil mural on plaster, "The Last Supper" was created for the refectory . While Hammer was alive, we reported that Oxy shareholders sued three times asking to be reimbursed for what Hammer spent on art and the museum. For her part, Modestini has documented her work and the scientific studies of the painting, and published them online. TINDERA: I'm Michela Tindera, and this is Priceless. An artist by disposition and endowment, he considered his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was mans highest sense because it alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty. But one key difference between my version and the one Bill Gates owns is that while my version is bound in the middle, like any typical hardcover book, every page of the original Codex Leicester is held in glass to make it easier to view all the pages. In 1472 Leonardo was accepted into the painters guild of Florence, but he remained in his teachers workshop for five more years, after which time he worked independently in Florence until 1481. They arrive in the wake of Ben Lewis's high-profile 2019 book, The Last Leonardo, and dozens of articles. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Son of Daniel (conductor & cellist) and Eleanore Saidenberg who were Picasso's New York dealers from 1955 to 1973. So that was kind of the basic first principle. Guinness World Records lists Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting. In both films, Luke Syson, the curator of the show, stands by his decision. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. During this first Milanese period he also made one of his most famous works, the monumental wall painting Last Supper (149598) in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie (for more analysis of this work, see below Last Supper). The world's most expensive painting to sell at auction is Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million on November 15, 2017 at Christie's.Shattering previous records and exceeding auction expectations, the sale underscored market demand for the artist's rare auction appearances, and the competition among collectors to own a work of such caliber and distinction. MASSEY: Twenty-five million, twenty-six million. Moreover, he was no doubt enticed by Duke Ludovico Sforzas brilliant court and the meaningful projects awaiting him there. The abrupt $20m and $30m jumps in price were indeed unusual, Cerutti confirmed. Two years later, some colourful characters entered the game. According to some sources, the painting had been sold by Argentinian art collector Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier for $300 million,[9] but the price was not confirmed by any of the parties involved.[10]. And my background is as an art historian. The Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold At Auctions 10. Fifty-fivefive-point-five million dollars to start it. CBS CLIP, CONNIE CHUNG: You know, you may be the richest man in America, or at least the second-richest man in America. On July 12, 2011, $75M was equivalent to 53M. That's why these valuations can be so tricky. Georgia O'Keeffe holds the record for the highest price paid for a painting by a woman. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. SIMON: The Codex is something that for most of the year, let's say you have to keep it under lock and key and out of the light. In the end, the picture was placed in Christies postwar and contemporary evening sale, wedged between lots of work by Cy Twombly, John Currin, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I cannot say if he or she will want to be public.. It next appeared at a Sotheby's in England in 1958 where it sold for 45 - about $125 at the time. A jump to $400m. SIMON: This is the clipping that I had taken out of the New York Times in 1980, when it was to be auctioned when Armand Hammer bought it. The work, thought to be a 500-year-old portait of Madonna and child, is potentially worth over $150 million (100 million) if experts are able to prove its authenticity. But he went even beyond that. In November 2017 Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman paid $450 million for a da Vinci painting. St John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci. This possibly-Leonardo treasure's route to fame began when it surfaced at an obscure New Orleans auction house in 2005 and was bought by two New York dealers for a measly $1,175. Knowingly or not? TINDERA: Robert Simon is perhaps best known in the art world for having a very close connection to a painting that is synonymous with money, power and controversy: the Salvator Mundi. For those who don't know it, it's a painting of Christ that sold at a Christie's auction in 2017 for $450 million, which is by far the most expensive work of art that's ever sold at auction. The painting disappeared from 1763 until 1900, when it was bought by Sir Charles Robinson as a work by Bernardino Luini, a follower of Leonardo. ", Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi was sold by Christie's in 2017 for a record-breaking $450 million (Credit: Photo by Ilya S Savenok/Getty Images for Christie's Auction House). But if our maximum value isn't $4 billion, then what is it? Gifted with a curious mind and a brilliant. Read about our approach to external linking. PETERSON-WITHORN: Yeah, when I heard about that $12 million sale, I remembered that the Codex had about 360 illustrations inside of it. It's not exactly known why he did that. And one of the other, one of the principles and differences between, say an auction estimate and an appraisaland this is for what we call fair market value appraisalis that we come up with a single value, understanding that it's very rare that we kind of hit the bull's eye, but that is the opinion of the appraiser. - The world's greatest art detective, - The men who Leonardo da Vinci loved, - The detail that unlocks the Mona Lisa. Everyone agreed, like Robert Simon said, that were it to go up for auction today. In this period, he painted very little and instead focused on his scientific activity, specifically his study of anatomy. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. After his death, Hammer's estate became tied up in a series of new lawsuits that began with the niece of Hammer's late wife suing for a piece of his art collection and other assets. The Christie's sale itself was a highly staged drama, beginning with a marketing video that showed not the painting but the faces of observers most are ordinary people but one of them is Leonardo DiCaprio looking reverently at the image as if they were seeing Christ himself.