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). 1 for US$44.4 million (equivalent to US$50.8million in 2021). 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). A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. TINDERA: Hypothetically though, Simon explained that our logic of taking one drawing and reviewing the sale price of that to extrapolate what a whole manuscript filled with drawings might be worth was something he considered in his own appraisal. And we can go into the auction record and look at previous copies of that exact same book, when it sold, where it sold, what its estimate was, what it brought. He was described in our Forbes 400 issue of the magazine that year as both a hard worker and brutally candid.. According to a CNBC report, the median net worth of someone who is 66 years old, which is Gates' age is about $266,000. Pablo Picasso "Garon la pipe" (1905): $142.7 million 8. 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. 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. Qi Baishi "Twelve Landscape Screens" (1925): $148.7 million 7. Guinness World Records lists Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting. 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. On November 20, 2014 at Sotheby's, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art bought her 1932 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. And Lewis has a new eight-episode podcast, Art Bust: Scandalous Stories of the Art World, which promises stories of "the ugliest crimes, the biggest scandals and the murky in-between." And that's the number we're using to value it. Amid all of that the Codex went back to Christie's in 1994, where it was once again expected to bring $10 million. The Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold At Auctions 10. ", 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. Son of Daniel (conductor & cellist) and Eleanore Saidenberg who were Picasso's New York dealers from 1955 to 1973. So if Saudi Arabia decides that culture is going to be the way it opens up and the Salvator Mundi is going to be a key player in that strategy and the Louvre is offering to exhibit it, then all those things are tied up together.". The piece is sold.. [5], The list is incomplete with respect to sales between private parties, as these are not always reported and, even if they are, details like the purchase price may remain secret. WINSTON: So once we've deduced that it's a first edition because it meets all of this criteria. Christie's billed the painting as an original work by Leonardo da Vinci himself. He's gone to extra lengths to make this work as a whole more accessible to the public. 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. When Leonardo was about 15, his father, who enjoyed a high reputation in the Florentine community, apprenticed him to artist Andrea del Verrocchio. TINDERA: So keeping all of those things in mind and knowing what he does about the Codex today. A Leonardo da Vinci painting has sold for a record-breaking $450 million this week, at Christie's auction house in New York. I'm an art dealer in New York. What was Leonardo da Vincis personality like? Christies sells long-lost Salvator Mundi, artwork billed as biggest discovery of the 21st century, for $400m plus auction house premium. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew 26: . The inflation adjustment may change as recent inflation rates are often revised. Record private sales are believed to include $250m for a painting by Paul Czanne and $300m for a Paul Gauguin. Whoever cut it up would be pilloried forever. A major turning point came when the painting was controversially displayed as an authentic Leonardo at a 2011 exhibition at the National Gallery in London. Amidst all these delightfully tangled histories, nothing rivals the Salvator Mundi. Some of the most eye-opening commentary in both films isn't even about art. Joining me for this is Chase Peterson-Withorn, an editor on the Forbes wealth team. Its the last painting by Leonardo, the greatest of all Renaissance artists, and it had an appeal to collectors from all parts of the world., Every major scholar of Leonardos work accepts the picture and has for the past decade, he said, addressing questions over the paintings authenticity and condition, adding: Its not in flawless condition, its 500 years old and absolutely has the presence and condition of a true 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. But as it turned out, he also had his own personal connection to the Codex. 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. Rybolovlev resold Te Fare in February 2017 at Christie's in London for $25 million. I think it's the greatest acquisition I ever made. Life of Leonardo da Vinci, a Short Biography 1. TINDERA: Gates is up against a group from a bank in Milan thats sitting in the front of the Christie's salesroom. [6] Another example is a 2019 sale of The Seated Zouave by Vincent van Gogh. 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. for the highest price sold. Before the auction opened, the 500-year-old Leonardo da Vinci painting was estimated to sell for $100 million. "I'm absolutely sure that six months down the road or a year, there's going to be some kind of new information, whether true or not, that's going to blow up everywhere in the news media," Dalsgaard says. In the film, the art historian Frank Zllner, who has compiled a catalogue raisonn of Leonardo's paintings, wryly calls the Salvator Mundi "a masterpiece by Dianne Modestini," who made it "more Leonardesque than Leonardo had done." Freeman's was founded in 1805, and is actually America's oldest auction house. Leonardo devoted 12 yearswith interruptionsto this task. 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. Mona Lisa. Bouviers mark-up led to Rybolovlevs criminal complaint in a Mongasque court, alleging a scheme for overcharging him. Ford House couldn't refuse", "Secret $100 Million Czanne Sale in Detroit artnet News", "Chteau Ptrus Makes a Record-Breaking Saleof Art", Roman Abramovich brings home the $86.3m Bacon and the $33.6m Freud, "Femme assise prs d'une fentre (Marie-Thrse), 1932", Auction; `Blue' Picasso Breaks Record at $51.7 Million, Works by Johns and de Kooning Sell for $143.5 Million, "Russian Billionaire Takes 74% Loss on $85 Million Gauguin", "Now hanging at the Art Institute: Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin's new, $100 million Basquiat canvas", "Ken Griffin Buys Basquiat Painting for More Than $100 Million", The Getty secures masterpiece portrait by Titian, Mark Rothko painting sets post-war auction record, Hopper Painting Sells for Record $91.9 Million at Christies, "ARTnews: Cohen Buys Two Works from Wynn in $120M Deal", David Hockney Painting Sells for $90 Million, Smashing Record for Living Artist, "Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale Fine Art Auction Search Results Christie's", "Revealed: $72.8m Rockefeller Rothko has gone to Qatar", https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-heirs-of-a-jewish-banker-are-taking-a-japanese-company-to-court-over-an-allegedly-nazi-looted-van-gogh/ar-AA15sviM?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cc9460cf2a05415db49f7eb48ba01da2, "How Robert Rauschenberg 'rewrote the rules of the game', "Report: Alice Walton Was Buyer of Record-Breaking $88.8 M. Rauschenberg at Christie's", A Warhol Leads a Night of Soaring Prices at Christies, Andy Warhol's "Triple Elvis" auction results, "Basquiat's In This Case headlines Christie's inaugural 21st Century Evening Sale at $93,105,000". Antique Heliogravure on wove paper after t.. 620: 1893 Leonardo da Vinci Bust of an Old Man in Roman Costume print signed Est: $ 500 - $ 700 View sold prices Feb. 05, 2023 KCM Galleries Cape Coral, FL, US As a painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan. "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. MASSEY: At 16 million, 17 million. That sold for $3.6 million at Sotheby's in New York in 1986. 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.. 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. The source says he advised the government that "exhibiting under the Saudi conditions would be like laundering a piece that cost $450 million". They bought it from an auction in Louisiana for just over $1,000. 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. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$900 million in 2021.[3]. PETERSON-WITHORN: After the auction, he told the press, I'm very happy with the price. At that time this was the 4th highest (unadjusted) price at auction and 10th highest price on this list. This sale tripled the previous record, and introduced a new era in top art sales. The Wikipedia template uses a yearly average inflation. Self Portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. And how does that help us come up with a number for today? 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. Our 1994 story said Hammer was a master at litigation, and the aggrieved shareholders had to settle to keep building costs at $60 million. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. But many experts think she did a drastic over-restoration. We also spoke with Stephen Massey, who we heard at the beginning of this episode. 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: 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. This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. And if Gates himself had the Codex appraised since he bought it. At $28 million. But if our maximum value isn't $4 billion, then what is it? PETERSON-WITHORN: Yeah, when I heard about that $12 million sale, I remembered that the Codex had about 360 illustrations inside of it.