The Da Vinci 反対／詐欺? Sold for £45 by an English baronet 60 years ago, it's now gone under the 大打撃を与える for £341 MILLION... but some 専門家s say it's not a Leonardo at all

• e-mail

Nearly 60 years ago, a 罰金 collection of Old Masters was put on sale in London by the auction house Sotheby’s.

The 作品 were from the Cook Collection, 組み立てる／集結するd by the forebears of the aristocratic 販売人, Sir Francis Cook, a baronet and himself an 遂行するd painter.

The 136 作品 went under the 大打撃を与える for a total of £64,668 ― 価値（がある） some £1.4 million today. The 星／主役にする of the show was a 絵 by Dutch artist Caspar Netscher, which sold for the modern 同等（の） of around £120,000.

One work that did not 動かす any excitement that Wednesday in June 1958 was lot 40 ― a small portrait of Christ called Salvator Mundi, or ‘Saviour of the World’.

Painted in oil on a 木造の board 手段ing 18 by 26 インチs, the portrait shows its 支配する gazing dreamily at the テレビ視聴者, his 権利 手渡す raised in benediction, while his left clutches a 水晶 orb.

Sotheby’s said the artist was Italian painter Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, who worked in the late 15th and 早期に 16th centuries.

It sold for a paltry £45 ― the 同等（の） today of £925. The 買い手 was a man called ‘Kuntz’, of whom little is known, and the 絵 appears to have made its way across the Atlanti c.

On Wednesday night in New York, it was auctioned again, this time by Sotheby’s 競争相手s, Christie’s.

It sold for a lot more than £45. In fact, with 料金s, the 絵 went for a staggering $450.3 million, or £341 million, which means its value has multiplied by over 7.5 million times since 1958. It was 安全な・保証するd by an unknown 買い手, 経由で phone, at Christie’s auction room in Manhattan in a 緊張した bidding contest that lasted 19 minutes.

As a result, the Salvator Mundi now has the honour of 存在 the most expensive 絵 ever sold. This 選び出す／独身 rectangle of 支持を得ようと努めるd and paint is 価値（がある） about the same as the personal fortune of the Queen.

The 推論する／理由 for that 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の price ― which はるかに引き離すs the previous 記録，記録的な／記録する 支えるもの／所有者, by expressionist Willem de Kooning, by over $150 million (£114 million) ― is simple. The 絵 is no longer thought to be by the 比較して obscure Boltraffio. It is now considered to be by a man seen as the greatest artist of all time ― Leonardo da Vinci.

While the cleaners at Christie’s sweep up the シャンペン酒 corks, many in the art world are asking questions about a 絵 価値（がある） almost $1 million per square インチ.

Sold for £341m, the Salvator Mundi now has the honour of 存在 the most expensive 絵 ever sold. This 選び出す／独身 rectangle of 支持を得ようと努めるd and paint is 価値（がある） about the same as the personal fortune of the Queen

Who has bought the picture? How can he or she be sure they’ve bought a 本物の Leonardo? What about the 絵’s history? And what does the sale tell us about the 勢力均衡 in the art market?

We can be sure the Salvator Mundi has not been acquired by a gallery ― few, if any, can afford to spend the best part of half a billion dollars on a 選び出す／独身 work. So it remains the only Leonardo in 私的な 手渡すs.

The 見込み is that it has gone to an individual ― perhaps a ロシアの, Chinese or Arab 億万長者 looking for the ultimate decorative bauble to hang in a 特別室, or on a superyacht.

One likely 候補者 who we know has not bought the 絵 is Liu Yiqian, a Chinese former cabbie turned 億万長者 投資家, who paid $170.4 million with 料金s for a Modigliani 絵 in 2015. 裁判官ing by a 地位，任命するing he made on social マスコミ, it looks as if he may have been an under-入札者.

There is a 欠如（する） of 同時代の 証拠 that Leonardo (above) was 責任がある Salvator Mundi

If the 買い手 is a mystery, so, too, are the 正確な origins of the 絵, which, disturbingly, some believe not to be a Leonardo, or at best, only partly by him.

Dr Carmen Bambach, a specialist in Italian Renaissance art at the 主要都市の Museum of Art in New York, wrote in 2012: ‘Having 熟考する／考慮するd and followed the picture during its 自然保護 治療, and seeing it in cont ext in [the London 国家の Gallery’s 2011 Leonardo] 展示, much of the 初めの surface may be by Boltraffio, but with passages done by Leonardo himself.’

‘I’m not a 信奉者 that this is a real Leonardo,’ says Professor Charles Hope, an 専門家 on renaissance 絵. ‘I think it’s exceptionally boring, and when you see it hanging next to some real Leonardos, it doesn’t look good.

‘I wouldn’t want to hang it on my 塀で囲む! 率直に, I think the （人命などを）奪う，主張する that it’s a Leonardo is ridiculous. Nobody in their 権利 mind would think it was. The world is filled with 近づく-Leonardos.’

More troubling still, there is a 欠如（する） of 同時代の 証拠 that Leonardo was 責任がある Salvator Mundi.

‘There is no 記録，記録的な／記録する Leonardo ever painted it,’ says artist Michael Daley, of ArtWatch UK, which （選挙などの）運動をするs to 保護する the 正直さ of 作品 of art. ‘You have to remember he was very famous, and there are lots of 記録，記録的な／記録するs of what he did. There is nothing on this 絵.’

にもかかわらず such 疑問s, 専門家s at Christie’s are 毅然とした the 絵 is the real thing. の中で them is ツバメ Kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art at Oxford University, who 堅固に defends its authenticity.

He told 無線で通信する 4’s Today programme yesterday: ‘There have been a few self-publicising critics who have jumped on the bandwagon and said, “It can’t be Leonardo”, but almost all of the major Leonardo scholars ― to whom it was shown systematically before it was shown in the 国家の Gallery [in 2011] ― 受託する that it is a Leonardo.’

When asked whether he was sure the 絵 was a Leonardo, Professor Kemp replied: ‘It speaks of Leonardo throughout . . . it’s got that 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の presence that Leonardo has.’

The artwork sold in 1958 for a paltry £45 ― the 同等（の） today of £925. The 買い手 was a man called ‘Kuntz’, of whom little is known, and the 絵 appears to have made its way across the 大西洋. On Wednesday night in New York, it was auctioned again, this time by Sotheby’s 競争相手s, Christie’s (pictured, as the bidding for it ended)

So how did the 絵 turn from 存在 thought of as a Boltraffio in the Fifties to a Leonardo today? The 変形 took place すぐに after 2005, when New York art 売買業者 Alexander Parish bought it for $10,000 at an American 広い地所 sale.

It was ひどく 割れ目d and 不正に over-painted, but Parish and a 国際借款団／連合 paid for its 復古／返還 and had it authenticated as a Leonardo by a number of 専門家s.

Two years later, Parish and his 同僚s sold the Salvator Mundi to スイスの 実業家 and art 売買業者 Yves Bouvier for a 報告（する）／憶測d $75-80 million. Just a few months later, Bouvier sold it for $127.5 million to ロシアの 億万長者 Dmitry Rybolovlev, who made much of his fortune out of potash 生産／産物.

In 2014, Mr Rybolovlev was ordered by a 法廷，裁判所 to 支払う／賃金 $4.5 billion to his ex-wife, which was thought to be the most expensive 離婚 解決／入植地 in history. That may be why Mr Rybolovlev sold the 絵 on Wednesday night. He 選ぶd the 権利 auction house: Christie’s 展示（する）d the work in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York to tempt 買い手s .

‘This was a 強くたたくing, epic 勝利 of branding and 願望（する） over connoisseurship and reality,’ Todd Levin, a New York art 助言者, told the New York Times. In a sense, whether the 絵 is a Leonardo or not may not 事柄.

The art world is now so 積極性 商業の that 絵s are bought and sold 単に as 思索的な 賭事s by 億万長者s. The fact that Paris’s venerable Louvre museum is 開始 a sibling gallery in Abu Dhabi 示すs the way European culture is 存在 appropriated and repackaged. The chances are the mystery 買い手 only cares about the Salvator Mundi if it can turn a 利益（をあげる）.

So long as the likes of Christie’s are happy to tout the 絵 as a Leonardo, they can sleep 平易な knowing that they should be able to sell those 468 square インチs in a few years for a handsome 利益（をあげる）.

Who knows? Perhaps the Saviour of the World will be the world’s first billion-dollar 絵.