Top 5 Most Expensive Paintings In The World
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The history of art is long and extraordinary, ranging from classic to contemporary. The world knows many of the great masters such as Van Gogh and Picasso. The works of the greats continue to come up for auction every few years and set new records each time.
Guinness World Records lists da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting. On permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at $100 million on December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be 10 times that. Salvator Mundi, a painting by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci dated to c. 1500, was sold at auction for $450.3 million on 15 November 2017 by Christie’s in New York to Prince Badr bin Abdullah, setting a new record for most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.
Today 5factum brings the top 5 most expensive paintings in the world.
1. SALVATOR MUNDI, ATTRIBUTED TO LEONARDO DA VINCI — $450,300,000
Salvator Mundi or Saviour of the World was supposedly painted by Leonardo da Vinci (many critics believe otherwise). The painting presents Jesus Christ dressed in Renaissance garbs and bestowing benediction, his right hand raised with two fingers crossed while holding a crystal ball in his left hand. The glass globe in his hand symbolizes crystalline spheres of the heavens — Christ is shown to be the savior of the world and the master of the cosmos. Leonardo was a Roman Catholic but still deviates from the traditional images of the brass/golden globes with a crucifix to the crystal sphere. Some claim that it was a conscious attempt on his part to tie the physical and spiritual worlds together.
Art enthusiasts claim that there are 20 different variants of the artwork, the original painting is lost. One such copy was recently restored and rediscovered to be the original work of da Vinci by many leading scholars. The argument that they present it that the golden hair ringlets, the knot-work crossing store, and the two fingers raised to bless…
