The Oxford scientist doubted that the most expensive painting in the history of auctions - Salvator Mundi - was created by Leonardo da Vinci.
A few months after the historic auction of the painting Salvator Mundi sold for a record $450,000,000 the leading Oxford art historian Matthew Landrus questioned if the painting really was created by Leonardo da Vinci.
He believes that most of the work was done by an assistant of da Vinci - the artist Bernardino Luini. His paintings are usually auctioned for less than a million pounds. It’s also an impressive sum but it is incommensurable with the value of the Salvator Mundi.
The picture was acquired by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi. It will be represented in the Abu Dhabi Louvre and later in the Paris Louvre. It seems that after this news one Arab sheikh began to cry bitterly.
“By looking at the various versions of Leonardo’s students’ works, one can see that Luini paints just like that work you see in the Salvator Mundi.” Landrus said.
According to his estimates, da Vinci is responsible only for 5-20 percent of the picture.
It turns out that not only Landrus has doubts about Salvator Mundi. A few experts believe that Leonardo da Vinci at best had an indirect relationship to the creation of the picture. In addition, some experts do criticize the picture details arguing that Leonardo could not allow such a blunder.
Comparisons time: In Jule court rules biopharmaceutical company AbbVie to pay $448,000,000 for blocking consumer access to lower-cost generic versions of testosterone gel. This act of fraud may be similar in terms of the amount of damage to the auction of a painting that was not created by Leonardo da Vinci.