Leonardo da Vinci painting of Christ sells for $450.3 million, shattering auction highs

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THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Robin Pogredin and Scott Reyburn
The painting ‘Salvator Mundi’ by Leonardo da Vinci at Christie’s. Credit Drew Angerer/Getty Images
NEW YORK---After 19 minutes of dueling, with four bidders on the telephone and one in the room, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” sold on Wednesday night for $450.3 million with fees, shattering the high for any work of art sold at auction. It far surpassed Picasso’s “Women of Algiers,” which fetched $179.4 million at Christie’s in May 2015. The buyer was not immediately disclosed. Earlier, 27,000 people had lined up at pre-auction viewings in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and New York to glimpse the painting of Christ as “Savior of the World.” “This was a thumping epic triumph of branding and desire over connoisseurship and reality,” said Todd Levin, a New York art adviser. [More]
Detail of Sixty Last Suppers" by Andy Warhol was also auctioned off by Christie's

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