The world-wide mystery of who paid $450 million for Leonardo da Vinci’s painting ‘Salvator Mundi’ is over with the announcement by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism that it was the mysterious buyer whose phoned-in last-minute bid won the Nov. 15 auction.
The department announced Sunday that the painting would be on display at the newly-opened Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Louvre’s first overseas branch, which opened Nov. 11th, but did not identify the owner. After speculation worldwide that the buyer was a Saudi prince, Abu Dhabi revealed that it was the purchaser.
The museum, with a large and innovative building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, has a contract with the French government under which the Louvre will provide programming, exhibitions and loan collections for several years, while the museum develops its own collection. In addition to Salvator Mundi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has acquired 620 works of its own.
