(Maybe so, but in the films and other reproduced images it does have a more cloying look). The Lost Leonardo is now playing in the US and opens in the UK on 10 September. 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. ROBERT SIMON: My name is Robert Simon. 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). As a painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan. Leonardo da Vinci paintings that is on public display in the Western Hemisphere. Guinness World Records lists Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting. Corrections? 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. His was the last name on the 1988 provenance list; painting came from "a private collection in Arizona". At the time bin Salman was trying to burnish Saudi Arabia's image by loosening a few restrictions. And so, you've got the painting itself is you know, much more of a rare object. And then, how do we rationalize the difference in the kind of object it is? However, other critics have disagreed with the truth of that claim. Christies had also found placing the work, despite its celebrity, hard to fathom. It may have been that the rather sophisticated spirit of Neoplatonism prevailing in the Florence of the Medici went against the grain of Leonardos experience-oriented mind and that the more strict, academic atmosphere of Milan attracted him. 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.. It came close. Pierre-Auguste Renoir "Bal du moulin de la Galette" (1876): $154.7 million 6. 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. On permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on 14 December 1962. She was universally considered to be the painter's sitter. And my enjoyment in owning these wonderful works of art. 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 What Gouzer may have meant is that buyers prepared to spend in excess of $100m on artwork exist in the modern and contemporary fields. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. 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 source says he advised the government that "exhibiting under the Saudi conditions would be like laundering a piece that cost $450 million". Explore the life of Italian painter, architect, engineer, and humanist Leonardo da Vinci. He also worked in the next-door workshop of artist Antonio Pollaiuolo. MASSEY: At 16 million, 17 million. He was the auctioneer at the 1994 Christie's sale. When he was about 15, his father, who enjoyed a high reputation in the Florence community, apprenticed him to artist Andrea del Verrocchio. TINDERA: The Italian government had reportedly been expected to participate in the auction. Self Portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. In November 2017 Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman paid $450 million for a da Vinci painting. This portrait was painted in Florence from 1474 to 1478. The image of Christ as The Saviour of the World was billed as The Last da Vinci at Christie's 2017 auction, where it sold for a record $450 million (342 million) to a proxy for bin Salman (yes, that bin Salman, whom the CIA found responsible for ordering the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi). The series is full of conspiracy theories about the never-solved robbery. Previewing the lot last month, Christies described the painting of Christ holding a crystal orb in his left hand and raising his right in benediction as the biggest discovery of the 21st century. Leonardo da Vincis parents were unmarried at the time of his birth near a small village named Vinci in Tuscany. So, you know, it's something I've sort of been following for, you know, a good part of my life. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$900 million in 2021.[3]. In fact, it was also noted in the Codexs 1994 auction catalogue written by late da Vinci scholar Carlo Pedretti, that the Mona Lisa is, "indeed a visual synthesis of Leonardo's scientific knowledge as summed up in the Codex.". She even has her own mailbox. ", Auction Records Fall at Phillipss Sale of Contemporary Masters, "Fernand Lger (18811955), Contraste de formes", "Warmer Response at Sotheby's 2nd Night of Auctions", "Hong Kong Billionaire Lau Sets Two Records in 24 Hours", Led by $66M Van Gogh, Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Sale Robustly Kicks Off Season, "Willem de Kooning (19041997), Untitled XXV", "Wang Meng painting auction for $62 million", "A Petite $69 Million Picasso Leads Sotheby's Solid $189 Million Impressionist Sale in London", "Property from a Distinguished Private Collection Pablo Picasso Femme Au Bret Et La Robe Quadrille (Marie-Thrse Walter)", Getty breaks record with $65.1-million purchase of Manet's 'Spring', As Stocks Fall, Art Surges at a $315.8 Million Sale, Claude Monet's "Le Bassin aux nymphas" auction results, A Zao Wou-Ki painting sold for $65 million, breaking records for a work by an Asian artist, Zao Wou-Ki's "Juin-Octobre 1985" auction results, The Most Expensive Paintings ever sold list by theartwolf, Oeuvres d'art les plus dispendieuses au monde, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_most_expensive_paintings&oldid=1140779647, Private Collection, New York, United States, This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 19:17. 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. Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol are the best-represented artists in the list. 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. In New York last night, he said he had never doubted the piece would break records. Kenneth Griffin acquired it in 2004 from Wynn. Leonardo da Vinci was described as having a gracious but reserved personality and an elegant bearing. Thanks for having me. In the days leading up the the sale, Christies produced a video of celebrities viewing the work, among them Leonardo DiCaprio and Patti Smith. Back in 1980 according to an Associated Press report, the man who was the Earl of Leicester at the time decided to sell the Codex, which had been part of the Earl's estate for more than 250 years. Everyone spoke with the caveat that we could never really know what the Codex is worth unless it actually goes up for auction. Price excludes sales commission and other costs. The buyer was anonymous, but the New York Times soon revealed him to be acting for bin Salman, a discovery that catapulted the painting into the geopolitical realm. Despite the excitement over the sale of the only Leonardo in private hands queues of people had formed around Rockefeller Center in New York to see the canvas many in the art world had wondered if the piece would find a buyer. Leonardo da Vinci. CBS CLIP, BILL GATES: Well, that's simply based on taking the stock I own in Microsoft and doing some type of multiplication. 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). The Virgin and Child with St Anne by Leonardo da Vinci. He currently resides in Vinci, Italy. MASSEY: Twenty-seven million. Hence, every phenomenon perceived became an object of knowledge, and saper vedere (knowing how to see) became the great theme of his studies. The Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci. Trained in Florence as a painter and sculptor in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488), Leonardo is also celebrated for his scientific contributions. For her part, Modestini has documented her work and the scientific studies of the painting, and published them online. Later in 2002, Thomson donated his private collection, including the Rubens, to the. Please select which sections you would like to print: Director, Central Institute for the History of Art, Munich, 194770. Bouviers mark-up led to Rybolovlevs criminal complaint in a Mongasque court, alleging a scheme for overcharging him. Two of his most important worksthe Battle of Anghiari and the Leda, neither of them completedhave survived only in copies. SIMON: It's a truly horrific prospect. On the telephone in this room at $28 million. However, weeks after the grand opening of his museum, where he planned to showcase the Codex and other art he had collected over the years, Hammer died at the age of 92. July 8, 2021. 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 Christie's in New York for $450.3m . At that time this was the 4th highest (unadjusted) price at auction and 10th highest price on this list. 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. 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. Additional audio credits: AP, CBS, GatesNotes-The Blog of Bill Gates. The piece is sold.. A jump to $400m. Thanks for joining me. We also spoke with Stephen Massey, who we heard at the beginning of this episode. He's gone to extra lengths to make this work as a whole more accessible to the public. 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. And so, the first place we looked were the auction records for the Codex from the 1980 and the 1994 sales. But when I saw it, it didn't sit comfortably with me as an autograph Leonardo." Here are 20 of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings: Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. It's on the last telephone at $28 million. TINDERA: So back in November 1994, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates was 39 years old and pretty much at the top of his game. Since the museums rarely sell them, they are considered priceless. They bought it from an auction in Louisiana for just over $1,000. The role of most of these associates is unclear, leading to the question of Leonardos so-called apocryphal works, on which the master collaborated with his assistants. And seeing these works enjoyed by people all over 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. Oprah Winfrey had bought the painting in November 2006 at Christie's for nearly $88 million. Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman the epitome of a true Renaissance man. SIMON: These went into the mix. At $28 million. Most experts today agree the painting was probably produced by assistants in Leonardo's workshop, where he added some finishing touches a common practice. Rybolovlevs spokesman, Brian Cattell, told the Wall Street Journal the family hoped the sale will finally bring to an end a very painful chapter. Art Sales: Russian buyers inject confidence into Old Master market: Last edited on 21 February 2023, at 19:17, Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue du bosquet du Chteau Noir, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), Portrait of a Young Man holding a Roundel, Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat, Femme au bret et la robe quadrille (Marie-Thrse Walter), List of most expensive artworks by living artists, List of most expensive non-fungible tokens, List of most expensive books and manuscripts, Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism, For Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches, Mystery Buyer of Work Attributed to Caravaggio Revealed, Caravaggio Painting Estimated at $170 M. Sold Privately Ahead of Auction in France, "El enigma detrs del Van Gogh que sali de la Argentina", "The Red Vineyard Painting at annaboch.com", "Anna Boch.com Impressionist, patron of many artists", "The Most Expensive Female Artists 2016 artnet News", "The Chinese Ink Paintings of Wang Shaofei Break the World Record", "Abu Dhabi to acquire Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi': Christie's", "A Leonardo Made a $450 Million Splash. A Belgian banker and collector who bought it in 1939 for $18,000. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. For example, on June 25, 2019, the American hedge fund manager J. Tomilson Hill bought a recently rediscovered Judith and Holofernes (1607) attributed to Caravaggio, two days before it would have been auctioned in Toulouse. His shares were of limited value when he was given them, but by the time of Facebook's IPO they were valued at around $200 million. 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. Within two days he sold it to Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. 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. TINDERA: Simon also included another work by da Vinci: a sheet of studies including sketches of a child embracing a lamb. 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. They reflected the importance of the painting and that some of the bidders were conscious that the price would go higher than their bids. While dozens of manuscripts like the Codex have managed to survive the centuries intact, the Codex Leicester is the only da Vinci notebook that is still in private hands. [note 1] Where necessary, the price is first converted to dollars using the exchange rate at the time the painting was sold. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Fifty-fivefive-point-five million dollars to start it. 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. She is a captivating, elegant presence on screen, with a whispery voice and wide eyes behind signature black or red-framed glasses. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. 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. So, we reached out to Martin Kemp, who is another da Vinci scholar, and an Oxford University emeritus professor. 1503-1519). SIMON: He spent much more time as a writer, a scientist, a draftsman than he did as a painter. Updates? The abrupt $20m and $30m jumps in price were indeed unusual, Cerutti confirmed. There's also something called primacy, which is being the first. 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. ARCHIVAL CLIP OF ARMAND HAMMER: Another hat is my hobby for collecting art. Leonardo did not seriously study Latin, the key language of traditional learning, until much later, when he acquired a working knowledge of it on his own. 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). Knowingly or not? PETERSON-WITHORN: After the auction, he told the press, I'm very happy with the price. It next appeared at a Sotheby's in England in 1958 where it sold for 45 - about $125 at the time. The sale of Salvator Mundi, which was painted around 1500 and presumed lost until early this century, was Rybolovlevs largest to date. Early Life: Verrocchio's Pupil. "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. I expected to pay much more. Some of the most eye-opening commentary in both films isn't even about art. $450 million That price more than doubled the. TINDERA: I'm looking through a copy of whats now called the Codex Leicester, which I purchased online for about $30. TINDERA: In his appraisal Simon selected five comparable works all from the Renaissance era. Whoever cut it up would be pilloried forever. Nineteen million on the telephone. Steve Wynn, who bid on the painting at auction, privately acquired the work several months later from the unidentified buyer for an undisclosed, supposedly lower price. TINDERA: I'm Michela Tindera, and this is Priceless. MASSEY: Still with me then at five-million five hundred thousand, five-million eight hundred thousand, five-million eight hundred thousand. In 1982, he appeared on our list with an estimated net worth of $150 million. 9. Mona Lisa is not only Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting but the entire world's most famous painting. I cannot say if he or she will want to be public.. PETERSON-WITHORN: Art is one of the toughest things we value for our lists, because the value is just so subjective, and you really don't know what something will sell for until it hits the auction block. A Leonardo da Vinci painting has sold for a record-breaking $450 million this week, at Christie's auction house in New York. That boosted this forgotten painting into the limelight and kickstarted the. 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. That sold for $3.6 million at Sotheby's in New York in 1986. What by Leonardo can we compare it with? Renaissance artist, inventor, polymath, musician, and architect who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper and drew the iconic Vitruvian Man. That's because da Vinci wrote it backwards, which is what he did for much of what he wrote. He had an exceedingly inquisitive mind and made strenuous efforts to become erudite in languages, natural science, mathematics, philosophy, and history, among other subjects. Still, it was a record-breaking event. The Wikipedia template uses a yearly average inflation. His Last Supper (149598) and Mona Lisa (c. 150319) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. 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. 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 first, we looked to experts in the world of rare books and manuscripts to learn about the qualities that make a book valuable. 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. And we're going to show you how we narrowed that range to settle on one number. 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. 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.