The subjects range from Inigo Philbrick, criminally charged with defrauding clients by selling more than 100% of shares in artworks, to a golden Egyptian coffin whose smuggled past came to light after Kim Kardashian was photographed next to it at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute gala. 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. Pierre-Auguste Renoir "Bal du moulin de la Galette" (1876): $154.7 million 6. - The world's greatest art detective, - The men who Leonardo da Vinci loved, - The detail that unlocks the Mona Lisa. There are Leonardo's drawings of the head and bust of Leda; a famous drawing was done in 1506 by Raphael; a red chalk drawing which may have been done by an assistant to Leonardo; a picture by Bugiardini which was based upon Leonardo's original cartoon (done in 1504); another copy probably by Francesco Melzi and based on Leonardo's second cartoon Ludovicos fall in 1499 sealed the fate of this abortive undertaking, which was perhaps the grandest concept of a monument in the 15th century. An exceptional case is graffiti artist David Choe, who accepted payment in shares for painting graffiti art in the headquarters of a fledgling Facebook. That he gave up both projects seems to indicate that he had deeper reasons for leaving Florence. When Leonardo was about 15, his father, who enjoyed a high reputation in the Florentine community, apprenticed him to artist Andrea del Verrocchio. (Swiss authorities investigated him for defrauding Rybolovlev over several artworks, but this year closed the case without charging him.) But even then, many Leonardo experts were dubious that the painting had more than a few brush strokes by him, and those doubts have ramped up ever since. This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. At 18 million in this room. TINDERA: Simon shared with us his own process for how he estimated the fair market value in the appraisal he put together nearly 30 years ago. Our 1994 story said Hammer was a master at litigation, and the aggrieved shareholders had to settle to keep building costs at $60 million. St John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. His was the last name on the 1988 provenance list; painting came from "a private collection in Arizona". for the highest price sold. [11][12] Prices realised for just his nine paintings listed below, when adjusted for inflation to 2017, add up to over US$900million. ", 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). TINDERA: Simon talked about how there have been a certain subset of book dealers called "breakers," who made it their job to buy books and then tear them apart, selling their illustrated pages piece by piece. A jump to $400m. Rybolovlevs spokesman, Brian Cattell, told the Wall Street Journal the family hoped the sale will finally bring to an end a very painful chapter. TINDERA: That average of every expert opinion worked out to about $130 million. Two new documentaries delve into the ongoing saga of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi in a moment when true art crime stories are at their peak, writes Caryn James. And flipping through this copy, I have to say, I cant read a word of this. 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. So it's difficult to get much better than someone who has actually appraised an item. At the same time, Bouvier was negotiating and eventually succeeded to buy the painting for $112 million from Ursula Ucicky, widow of, Some fear existed, that Portrait of Dr. Gachet had been cremated with the owner in 1996, but Gachet's portrait was privately resold to. I'll give everyone time. We felt that offering this painting within the context of our postwar and contemporary evening sale is a testament to the enduring relevance of this picture.. A New York Times story on the sale remarked that it was the highest price ever paid at auction for a manuscript. The quality of the painting itself divides people. At $28 million. Bouviers mark-up led to Rybolovlevs criminal complaint in a Mongasque court, alleging a scheme for overcharging him. But many experts on camera and elsewhere in the press think he leapt to an early conclusion. TINDERA: But admittedly, Darren told us that he wasn't a da Vinci, or Codex expert and was hesitant to put a value on it out of the gate. Scholars have been unable to agree in their attributions of these works. And that was the process. MICHELA TINDERA: So its 1994, and were listening to an auction in a salesroom at Christie's in Manhattan. Additional audio credits: AP, CBS, GatesNotes-The Blog of Bill Gates. It's worth at least what Gates paid for it. Amid all of that the Codex went back to Christie's in 1994, where it was once again expected to bring $10 million. Later in 2002, Thomson donated his private collection, including the Rubens, to the. Leonardo Da Vinci 1503 It was kept it at the Palace at Fontainebleau, where it remained until King Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. Alison Cole, editor of The Art Newspaper, has written extensively about the painting and saw it at the National Gallery. Unless new documentation surfaces (unlikely after all these centuries), or a new scientific method of authentication arrives (also tricky because the work has been so damaged), the mystery may prove eternal. The alleged vandalism attempt on Sunday left the painting's glass covered in cake frosting. WINSTON: So once we've deduced that it's a first edition because it meets all of this criteria. Both sold at Sotheby's in Monaco on the same date in 1989. The writings in his notebooks suggest that he may have been a vegetarian, and there is also some speculation that he may have been gay. Six-million five hundred thousand, seven million. 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. Thanks for having me. 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. The figure more than doubles the existing record for an artwork sold at auction: a $179.4 million bid for a Picasso in 2015. This Leonardo da Vinci's portrait paintings are of Ginevra de' Benci, who was a rather popular Florentine woman. 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. It is Oil on wood and measures 168 x 130 cm (5 1/2 x 4 1/2 ft.). And trying to balance them And of course, one of the things in doing an appraisal like this is you just don't put them in a mix, whatever. Privately resold for ca. Leonardo da Vincis parents were unmarried at the time of his birth near a small village named Vinci in Tuscany. Amidst all these delightfully tangled histories, nothing rivals the Salvator Mundi. The artwork alone garners thousands of visitors from around the world to the famous gallery it is placed in - the . It's now been determined that his painting is not, in fact, a da Vinci. And so, the first place we looked were the auction records for the Codex from the 1980 and the 1994 sales. The earliest sale on the list below (Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh) is from March 1987; with a price of 24.75 million (74.1 million in 2021 currency). 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. Thanks for joining me. TINDERA: That's right. Since the painting first arrived at the Louvre in 1815, "Mona Lisa" has received plenty of love letters and flowers from admirers. ", 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? Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$900 million in 2021.[3]. Finding a new one is rarer than finding a new planet, he said. CLIP OF BILL GATES: So here, you're just seeing the page exactly as it looked to da Vinci. She even has her own mailbox. But now the Salvator Mundi has become the poster boy for the volatile mix of money, power and geopolitics that defines the art world today. DARREN WINSTON: Once we've decided that the book is worth looking at for its condition, for its provenance. He also worked in the next-door workshop of artist Antonio del Pollaiuolo, a sculptor, painter, engraver, and goldsmith, who frequently worked with his brother, Piero. And then there's also rarity, or how rare this exact copy or version of a book or manuscript is. 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). He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. On the last telephone, 18 million. A tempera and oil mural on plaster, "The Last Supper" was created for the refectory . TINDERA: That's Gates talking for a video posted on his blog a few years ago, around the time that he exhibited the Codex Leicester in some museums in Europe. What Gouzer may have meant is that buyers prepared to spend in excess of $100m on artwork exist in the modern and contemporary fields. This means the Codex is certainly one of the world's most valuable pieces of art. The film doesn't take a stand on the painting's attribution, but makes it clear that museums, dealers and potential buyers had millions to gain along with incalculable prestige by choosing to believe it is a true Leonardo. What was Leonardo da Vincis family like? Also of note is the decorative ceiling painting (1498) he made for the Sala delle Asse in the Milan Castello Sforzesco. Self Portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. Before Rybolovlev, Salvator Mundi had been owned by a consortium of dealers including Alexander Parish, who had picked it up for $10,000 at an estate sale in the US in 2005, and had had it restored and authenticated. But Christie's declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Gates never responded to our questions. Hammer somehow convinced the courts he was increasing shareholder value. But many experts think she did a drastic over-restoration. 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. Source: pinterest.com. SIMON: He spent much more time as a writer, a scientist, a draftsman than he did as a painter. TINDERA: I'm looking through a copy of whats now called the Codex Leicester, which I purchased online for about $30. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)", "Claude Monet (18401926), Odalisque couche aux magnolias", "Basquiat Tops Phillips Contemporary Sale at $85 Million", "Titian masterpiece Diana and Callisto saved for nation", "No. As a painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan. And if Gates himself had the Codex appraised since he bought it. One of two pastel versions; another two painted versions (and lithography) exist, all created by Munch. Soon, the painting was on its way to Christie's. And so I think it's, you know, not so much, Let's look at it and see what would happen if we took scissors to it and divided it up. But just to say, Here we have something of such significance, partly because it has survived 500 years without, you know, being destroyed.. That these tales can work in a podcast, where no one can even see the work being described, suggests how much the allure of today's art-crime stories is in the skulduggery and mystery, not aesthetics. This time, though, it sold for three times that in the battle we heard about at the beginning of the episode between Gates and the Italian bank. During this period Leonardo worked on a grandiose sculptural project that seems to have been the real reason he was invited to Milan: a monumental equestrian statue in bronze to be erected in honour of Francesco Sforza, the founder of the Sforza dynasty. 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. People who often would never get a chance to visit the great museums of the world. So it doesn't really look like a notebook anymore. One of the most famous paintings in the world, the Last Supper was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan and Leonardo's patron during his first stay in that city, for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. But some have said that's because he was left-handed, and he didnt want his ink to smear. 9. The Lost Leonardo is now playing in the US and opens in the UK on 10 September. MASSEY: At 16 million, 17 million. Leonardo spent 17 years in Milan, until Ludovicos fall from power in 1499. Since the museums rarely sell them, they are considered priceless. Everyone spoke with the caveat that we could never really know what the Codex is worth unless it actually goes up for auction. 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. That estimate sort of got you thinking in another direction, though, right Chase? SIMON: And if you look at the illuminated manuscripts that are from, you know, missiles, and you know, these are Renaissance manuscripts, many of them have been broken apart. The case led to the resignation of Monacos then justice minister, Philippe Narmino. So Gates sort of went out and bought the ultimate book. a 2011 exhibition at the National Gallery in London, Art Bust: Scandalous Stories of the Art World, Kim Kardashian was photographed next to it. [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]. 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 US art critic Jerry Saltz rails in The Lost Leonardo that "it's not even a good painting", much less a great Leonardo, while true believers gush that seeing it in person is a transcendent experience. This episode was reported by Michela Tindera, produced by Michela Tindera and Jonathan Palmer, with additional research by Sue Radlauer. You can't really show it offwhether it's to your best friends or in a museum if you're a public institution. It looks interesting. The Virgin and Child with St Anne was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1510. Whereas Picasso and Warhol became wealthy men, van Gogh is known to have sold only one painting in his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, for 400 French francs (approximately $2,000 in 2018 dollars) in 1890, to the Belgian impressionist painter and heiress Anna Boch. TINDERA: Robert pointed out one other unique distinction. He needed to do that because in order to pay the inheritance taxes on a previous Earl of Leicester, who died in 1976, they needed to sell off some stuff. 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. So I thought, "What if Gates cut up all the drawings into individual little works of art and sold them off that way? So next, we decided to try some sources who not only know Old Masters works, but they know da Vinci really well. 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. Price excludes sales commission and other costs. He was described in our Forbes 400 issue of the magazine that year as both a hard worker and brutally candid.. 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. 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. TINDERA: Right. Four hundred million selling here at Christies. And it was, you know, a thrilling project to be involved with. JoinBBC Culture Film and TV Clubon Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew 26: . Then we look at the condition, and we base the condition on what's in our hands, and how you look at a book thats 150, 170 years old. Twenty-eight million. 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. Renaissance artist, inventor, polymath, musician, and architect who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper and drew the iconic Vitruvian Man. Art restorer Dianne Modestini in a scene from The Lost Leonardo, one of two new documentaries about the Salvator Mundi (Credit: Sony Pictures Classics/Entertainment Pictures). It came close. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Following the French Revolution it was moved to the Louvre. Moreover, he was no doubt enticed by Duke Ludovico Sforzas brilliant court and the meaningful projects awaiting him there. Most experts today agree the painting was probably produced by assistants in Leonardo's workshop, where he added some finishing touches a common practice. "When we chose the title," Andreas Dalsgaard, a producer and a writer of The Lost Leonardo, tells BBC Culture, "the inspiration was partly that the painting is lost right now and the truth is lost, but it was also inspired by movies like the Indiana Jones movies that are full of treasures and treasure hunts.". But uncertainty is key to the appeal of every version of the story, as Lewis tells BBC Culture: "Nobody knows if it is a Leonardo, so you too can play the game, you can do your own Da Vinci Code on the Salvator Mundi. 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. His father, Ser Piero, was a Florentine notary and landlord, and his mother, Caterina, was a young peasant woman who shortly thereafter married an artisan. It's with you at $28 million. The piece is sold.. He's gone to extra lengths to make this work as a whole more accessible to the public. He had just gotten married to Melinda Gates on New Year's Day of that year and was in the middle of building his multi-million-dollar mega mansion, Xanadu 2.0. Knowingly or not? Leonardo never married, but he had many close relationships with other artists and intellectuals as well as with his assistants. It suffers from not having Modestini or some other compelling central figure. When it sold in 1994, it was also expected to sell for $10 million, but ended up selling for three times that. Within two days he sold it to Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. The paintings transferred to the dealers include a late, Alan Bond could not pay off the painting, and. "A Botticelli Portrait Sells for $92 Million at Sotheby's Auction", "Christie's 'Secret Weapon' in Rockefeller's 'Sale of the Century' | Auctions News | THE VALUE | Art News", "Claude Monet (18401926), Nymphas en fleur", Greatest German Renaissance Madonna sold by prince, Vincent van Gogh (18531890) Laboureur dans un champ, U.K. Buys Titian Diana Painting for 50 Million Pounds, Titian deal paves way for next acquisition, "Mark Rothko: No. Usually estimated at "over 50 M" or "between 50 and 60 million Euros". SIMON: It's a truly horrific prospect. He told us via email that his guess would be, "over $100 million." PETERSON-WITHORN: Yeah, and Gates loves books. Christie's billed the painting as an original work by Leonardo da Vinci himself. This sale tripled the previous record, and introduced a new era in top art sales. The original one is now located at Muse du Louvre, Paris. Simon has said that it took a couple of years after they bought the painting to become convinced himself that he was dealing with an original work by Leonardo. In particular, Qi Baishi's Twelve Landscape Screens was sold for $140.8 million in 2017. In contrast, there are currently only nine pre-1875 paintings among the listed top 89, and none created between 1635 and 1874. 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. His Last Supper (149598) and Mona Lisa (c. 150319) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. TINDERA: Gates is up against a group from a bank in Milan thats sitting in the front of the Christie's salesroom. Omissions? [4] In constant dollars, the highest price paid before 1987 was by the National Gallery of Art when in February 1967 they acquired Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci for around $5 million ($41million in 2021 dollars) from the Princely Family of Liechtenstein. Rybolovlev resold Gauguin's Otahi before 2017 for less than $50 million. TINDERA: Ultimately, in his appraisal, which Simon submitted in December 1993. The winning bidder would later be revealed to be Saudi Arabia's Prince. Hi, Chase. On Sunday, May 29, a man disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair threw a cake at the Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vinci's legendary painting at Louvre, Paris. Among Leonardos pupils at this time were Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Ambrogio de Predis, Bernardino de Conti, Francesco Napoletano, Andrea Solari, Marco dOggiono, and Salai. If all we do is adjust the $30.8 million that Gates paid for it for inflation, that gets us to somewhere around $50 million today. PETERSON-WITHORN: Exactly. In Verrocchios renowned workshop Leonardo received a multifaceted training that included painting and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts. "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. (According to contemporary sources, Leonardo was commissioned to create three more pictures, but these works have since disappeared or were never done.) Robert Simon told us that he thought it would not sell for less than $150 million.