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. People who often would never get a chance to visit the great museums of the world. But we need a lot more information than that before we make our estimate. Exact price (even the currency of sale) is not known, with estimates from $250 million to $300 million, Within weeks after a private viewing in Vienna in September 2012, Rybolovlev agreed to pay $183.8 million via his dealer Bouvier. That he gave up both projects seems to indicate that he had deeper reasons for leaving Florence. Son of Daniel (conductor & cellist) and Eleanore Saidenberg who were Picasso's New York dealers from 1955 to 1973. July 8, 2021. In the days leading up the the sale, Christies produced a video of celebrities viewing the work, among them Leonardo DiCaprio and Patti Smith. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$900 million in 2021.[3]. For her part, Modestini has documented her work and the scientific studies of the painting, and published them online. Rybolovlev resold Te Fare in February 2017 at Christie's in London for $25 million. 1 for US$44.4 million (equivalent to US$50.8million in 2021). Biography Of Leonardo da Vinci: How Old Is Leonardo da Vinci | Net Worth | People ProfilesPeople Profiles is a channel that dives deep into the lives of some. The rest are owned by museums around the world. (Maybe so, but in the films and other reproduced images it does have a more cloying look). Gifted with a curious mind and a brilliant. Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. The Louvre very much wanted to include it in its grand exhibition to celebrate Leonardo's 500th anniversary in 2019. And Lewis points out that as the art market has enlarged, our world view itself has changed. As a master artist, Leonardo maintained an extensive workshop in Milan, employing apprentices and students. The Lost Leonardo is now playing in the US and opens in the UK on 10 September. Hammer somehow convinced the courts he was increasing shareholder value. 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. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. So, I think we could legitimately set the floor at that price. PETERSON-WITHORN: After the auction, he told the press, I'm very happy with the price. 1503-1519). As everyone who does not live in utter isolation knows, a painting of Christ known as the "Salvator Mundi" ("Savior of the World") by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci was. This sale tripled the previous record, and introduced a new era in top art sales. That boosted this forgotten painting into the limelight and kickstarted the. 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. 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. Moreover, he was no doubt enticed by Duke Ludovico Sforzas brilliant court and the meaningful projects awaiting him there. 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. [13][14], Among the listed top 89, only six are paintings by non-Western artists. Before the auction opened, the 500-year-old Leonardo da Vinci painting was estimated to sell for $100 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. She was universally considered to be the painter's sitter. They reflected the importance of the painting and that some of the bidders were conscious that the price would go higher than their bids. It then becomes a first edition of Moby Dick. Six-million five hundred thousand, seven million. At the height of the auction, as many of six bidders were in play. In 1482 Leonardo moved to Milan to work in the service of the citys dukea surprising step when one realizes that the 30-year-old artist had just received his first substantial commissions from his native city of Florence: the unfinished panel painting Adoration of the Magi for the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto and an altar painting for the St. Bernard Chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria, which was never begun. The collector acquired it from Bouvier for $127m, who had in turn acquired it from Sothebys in a private sale in 2013 for about $50m less. The only non-Western modern artwork listed is that of the Chinese-French painter Zao Wouki's oil painting Juin-Octobre 1985, which was sold for $65 million in 2018. Twenty-eight million dollars, then. MASSEY: Nineteen-million five hundred thousand I'll be happy to take. Leonardos parents were unmarried at the time of his birth. 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. Privately resold for ca. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. (crowd laughs) Good start. 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. She even has her own mailbox. He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish. This Leonardo da Vinci's portrait paintings are of Ginevra de' Benci, who was a rather popular Florentine woman. The triptych had probably been reassembled by the Italian collector Francesco De Simone Niquesa, but were resold to a person in the US before 2013, This is the small version of the painting; the large version is at the. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Alan Wintermute, a senior specialist in old master paintings at Christies in London, called it the holy grail of old masters. But one key difference between my version and the one Bill Gates owns is that while my version is bound in the middle, like any typical hardcover book, every page of the original Codex Leicester is held in glass to make it easier to view all the pages. Following the French Revolution it was moved to the Louvre. CHASE PETERSON-WITHORN: Hi, Michela. In New York last night, he said he had never doubted the piece would break records. TINDERA: That average of every expert opinion worked out to about $130 million. They arrive in the wake of Ben Lewis's high-profile 2019 book, The Last Leonardo, and dozens of articles. On permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on 14 December 1962. He's the head of the Books, Maps and Manuscripts department at Freeman's Auction House in Philadelphia. Oprah Winfrey had bought the painting in November 2006 at Christie's for nearly $88 million. DARREN WINSTON: Once we've decided that the book is worth looking at for its condition, for its provenance. Christie's billed the painting as an original work by Leonardo da Vinci himself. Something like the first printing in North America, or the first time a new word was used in print. The Virgin and Child with St Anne was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1510. 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. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is one of the most intriguing personalities in the history of Western art. Explore the life of Italian painter, architect, engineer, and humanist Leonardo da Vinci. Knowingly or not? 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. Inside besides da Vinci's writings, there are also about 360 drawings and diagrams throughout the manuscript. When Bill Gates bought the manuscript, rather than naming it the Codex Gates after himself, he decided to rename it the Codex Leicester after an earlier owner. ARCHIVAL CLIP OF ARMAND HAMMER: Another hat is my hobby for collecting art. [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. $50 million through Sothebys in 1997. 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Here's how much the artwork is worth! Most experts today agree the painting was probably produced by assistants in Leonardo's workshop, where he added some finishing touches a common practice. Simon's connection to the painting is that back in 2005, he and a colleague actually sort of rediscovered the painting, which was in terrible condition. And to put into perspective, how much less art sold for 40 years ago, the sale of the Codex was the fifth-highest price for any piece of art sold at auction ever. Freeman's was founded in 1805, and is actually America's oldest auction house. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. In contrast, there are currently only nine pre-1875 paintings among the listed top 89, and none created between 1635 and 1874. ARCHIVAL CLIP OF ARMAND HAMMER: I guess I'm wearing a great many hats. During his second period in Florence (1500-1508), he painted his most famous work, the Mona Lisa (ca. St John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci. The sale of Salvator Mundi, which was painted around 1500 and presumed lost until early this century, was Rybolovlevs largest to date. 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. In cases like these, that's why we have to turn to the experts who know more about this than us. Its the zenith of my career as an auctioneer. ARCHIVAL CLIP-STEPHEN MASSEY, CHRISTIES: The Leonardo da Vinci Codex Hammer. Here are 20 of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings: Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold At Auctions 10. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew 26: . So next, we decided to try some sources who not only know Old Masters works, but they know da Vinci really well. And it was, you know, a thrilling project to be involved with. Source: pinterest.com. Robert Simon told us that he thought it would not sell for less than $150 million. PETERSON-WITHORN: So I thought this was super fascinating that you could actually consider a work of art as something that could not only hold value and appreciate in value, but could also be a business, generating income for its owner over time. But as it turned out, he also had his own personal connection to the Codex. And my background is as an art historian. That is still a question. 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. Before this, the highest absolute price paid for a painting was 8.1 million (20.4 million in 2021 currency) paid by the J. Paul Getty Museum for Andrea Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi at Christie's in London on 18 April 1985. It would not draw more than the Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450 million. He also did not apply himself to higher mathematicsadvanced geometry and arithmeticuntil he was 30 years old, when he began to study it with diligent tenacity. This possibly-Leonardo treasure's route to fame began when it surfaced at an obscure New Orleans auction house in 2005 and was bought by two New York dealers for a measly $1,175. No one in the art world knows for sure where the painting is. Because the Louvre cannot comment on privately-owned works it has not displayed, the book can't be published, and at first, Cole says, the museum denied its existence. Pierre-Auguste Renoir "Bal du moulin de la Galette" (1876): $154.7 million 6. TINDERA: The Italian government had reportedly been expected to participate in the auction. The alleged vandalism attempt on Sunday left the painting's glass covered in cake frosting. In Verrocchios renowned workshop Leonardo received a multifaceted training that included painting and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts. And that was the process. 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). 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. MASSEY: Twenty-five million, twenty-six million. TINDERA: I'm Michela Tindera, and this is Priceless. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. The final winning bid? 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. A jump to $400m. SIMON: He spent much more time as a writer, a scientist, a draftsman than he did as a painter. She spent years restoring the painting, and passionately defends its authenticity in precise detail, pointing out the pentimento under Christ's thumb or a curve of his mouth that could only be Leonardo's. And so, the first place we looked were the auction records for the Codex from the 1980 and the 1994 sales. Please select which sections you would like to print: Director, Central Institute for the History of Art, Munich, 194770. At the time bin Salman was trying to burnish Saudi Arabia's image by loosening a few restrictions. See a gallery of the world's most expensive paintings, Leonardo da Vincis Salvator Mundi sold for $400 million at Christies ($450.3m, including auction house premium), One of four versions of The Scream created by Munch and the only one that is privately owned. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to ourFacebookpage or message us onTwitter. 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. A Belgian banker and collector who bought it in 1939 for $18,000. An exceptional case is graffiti artist David Choe, who accepted payment in shares for painting graffiti art in the headquarters of a fledgling Facebook. TINDERA: On sale is a one-of-a kind Leonardo da Vinci manuscript known as the Codex Hammer. But it does have two anonymous sources, their faces hidden on camera, identified as high-ranking French government officials who had access to the Louvre's studies of the painting and to the French-Saudi negotiations.