{"id":273416,"date":"2021-06-13T01:22:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T22:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/is-salvator-mundi-made-up\/"},"modified":"2021-06-13T01:22:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T22:22:54","slug":"is-salvator-mundi-made-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/is-salvator-mundi-made-up\/","title":{"rendered":"#Is Salvator Mundi ‘made up’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Is Salvator Mundi ‘made up’?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Robert Simon encountered a Leonardo da Vinci painting and got emotional. \u201cI cried,\u201d he told The Post of seeing the work hanging in Christie\u2019s New York, displayed ahead of a 2017 auction. \u201cThank God the room was dark. The painting had been through what I had been through. This was personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

As chronicled in a new documentary, \u201cThe Lost Leonardo,\u201d Simon, a respected NYC art dealer and historian, spent years working out whether or not this painting, Salvator Mundi, was the real thing. He endured the criticism of naysayers \u2014 New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz exclaims in the film, \u201cIt is no more real than any of the other dreamed-up scams and schemes\u2026\u201d after calling the work \u201ca made-up piece of junk\u201d \u2014 and had his supporters. \u201cIt is absolutely a Leonardo,\u201d Martin Kemp, author of \u201cLeonardo By Leonardo<\/a>\u201d and art history professor emeritus in Trinity College at the University of Oxford, told The Post. \u201cFor something to come from out of nowhere like this is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once owned by Simon and two partners, the Mundi began its currently heralded existence as a so-called \u201csleeper,\u201d purchased by Simon and fellow dealer Alex Parish in 2005 for a stunning $1,150 via a low-key auction in New Orleans. Nobody knew what it was, much less what it could be worth. Simon and Parish had a history of finding sleepers \u2014 \u201cUsually you buy one for $1,150 and sell it for $5,000,\u201d said Simon \u2014 but this piece proved different.<\/p>\n

Initial expectations, however, were low. \u201cI was pleased that it was a real painting,\u201d said Simon, who did not see it in-person before bidding. \u201cBut I was staggered by the repainting\u201d \u2014 over the original work \u2014 \u201cand the high-quality of the original that I could see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Simon has been trying to get to the bottom of the Da Vinci painting.<\/figcaption>
Stefano Giovannini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The likely best-case scenario at that point: It was a copy done by the master\u2019s pupils or studio hands, which would still make it a major find. But Dianne Modestini, the esteemed art restorer who was brought on to repair the painting \u2014 which was practically falling apart after some 600 years of careless treatment \u2014 asked Simon to drop by her studio.<\/p>\n

She showed him details of the subject\u2019s lip. \u201cIt was so similar to that of the Mona Lisa,\u201d Simon marveled, referring to da Vinci\u2019s most famous work. \u201cWe tried to find an explanation.\u201d But, between this feature and others, he added, \u201cThe only conclusion was that it had to be by Leonardo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Simon admitted, \u201cI referred to it as a Leonardo but, initially, I never believed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After eight high-stress years of restoration, which included the tattered painting ending up in \u201cfive to seven\u201d pieces before being meticulously fitted back together, Simon and his partners received their answer. In 2008, five Leonardo experts gathered in London, charged with opining on whether or not it was legit. A book entitled \u201cThe Last Leonardo<\/a>\u201d said the results seemed to be two \u201cyeses,\u201d one \u201cno\u201d and two \u201cno comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s wrong,\u201d said Simon. \u201cBefore a 2011 exhibition in London, I wrote to the scholars and they all confirmed attribution to Leonardo.\u201d<\/p>\n

That National Gallery show gave the work a de facto seal of app<\/a>roval. Art-lovers lined up and a roller coaster ride ensued. For starters, in 2012, the Dallas Museum of Art expressed interest in owning the coveted work. \u201cIt was there for nine months,\u201d said Simon, adding that funding never coalesced. \u201cThat was a difficult moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The painting returned to its owners. In 2013, Sotheby\u2019s reached out and Yves Bouvier, a dealer and owner of freeports (facilities were art can be discreetly and securely stored), offered $80 million. Simon and his partners bit. \u201cHe definitely got a deal,\u201d said Simon, describing himself as \u201cbeaten up\u201d and ready to sell. \u201cThe next day he sold it [for $127.5 million]. Not bad for a day\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The purchaser was Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev. The Sotheby\u2019s sale price went public and this work became part of a lawsuit: Rybolovlev claimed that Bouvier worked for him as a consultant (taking 1 percent on pieces steered his way) rather than a dealer. Bouvier disagreed. Whatever the case, a scorned Rybolovlev put the painting up for sale at Christie\u2019s. That was when Simon enjoyed a moment with what had once been his da Vinci.<\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Simon had purchased the painting in 2005 as a \u201csleeper,\u201d for less than $2,000.<\/figcaption>
VCG Wilson\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The work then sold for a record-setting $450 million to Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Attempts to exhibit the painting under his ownership stalled and its whereabouts are not exactly known. The movie points out that it hung for a time on his yacht. \u201cThat is crazy,\u201d director Andreas Koefoed told The Post. \u201cHumidity on a yacht is always high. It is not a good place for a painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon said he doesn\u2019t\u00a0resent Rybolovlev\u2019s hefty return and he\u2019s glad people are recognizing the Salvator Mundi\u2019s historical value.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it sold for that, I felt vindicated,\u201d he said, adding that he anticipated it going for $280 million. \u201cAt the end, I made more money than I would have ever dreamt. The painting changed my life. I am happy for it.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Is Salvator Mundi ‘made up’?” Robert Simon encountered a Leonardo da Vinci painting and got emotional. \u201cI cried,\u201d he told The Post of seeing the work hanging in Christie\u2019s New York, displayed ahead of a 2017 auction. \u201cThank God the room was dark. The painting had been through what I had been through. This was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/AFP_97W474.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[109135,116,109238,5622,82073,73312],"class_list":["post-273416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-12-21","tag-art","tag-art-history","tag-documentary","tag-leonardo-da-vinci","tag-painting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}