The world’s most expensive artwork will be the centrepiece of the ‘Louvre of Saudi Arabia’ as the country looks to use the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece to drive up tourism.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bought the Salvator Mundi, which has been attributed to the Italian painter, for $450 million (£360 million) in 2017.
The artwork has been left out of sight in a vault in Geneva for years since its record-breaking purchase but Crown Prince Mohammed now wants to use the piece as the ‘anchor object’ to attract millions of tourists to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
According to Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princetown University, the prince has a desire to ‘build a very large museum in Riyadh’.
Speaking on a new BBC documentary titled The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince, Haykel said he asked the crown prince about the whereabouts of the Salvator Mundi and he told him that he wished to use it in his replication of the Louvre.
He apparently claimed that 90 per cent of its visitors came just to see another Leonardo work, the Mona Lisa.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured in 2020) bought the Salvator Mundi, which has been attributed to the Italian painter, for $450 million (£360 million) in 2017.
The artwork (pictured in 2019) has been left out of sight in a vault in Geneva for years since its record-breaking purchase but the prince now wants to use the piece as the ‘anchor object’ to attract millions of tourists to Riyadh, the Saudi capital
Crown Prince Mohammed’s purchase was also a deliberate challenge to Saudi Arabia’s conservative Islamic leadership, Haykel said, as it was never officially approved.
He told the documentary: ‘The idea was that you would have a painting by Leonardo that would hang in that museum and help attract tourists.
‘You could also put another spin on [it] and say this is one of the most important paintings in the western world of Jesus and we own it.’
Haykel also said the Saudi culture minister, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, had told him that Salvator Mundi had ‘been in storage in Geneva ever since [its 2017 purchase]’
‘It’s basically waiting for the museum to be completed and then it’ll hang in the museum,’ Haykel added.
The BBC2 documentary series, the first episode of which is broadcast tonight, explores the crown prince’s drive to turn Saudi Arabia into a cultural powerhouse, as well as his rise to become the heir apparent of one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
As well as purchasing the Salvator Mundi, the crown prince has also employed a number of art leaders to oversee his project – including Iwona Blazwick, the former director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and, most recently, Hartwig Fischer, the former director of the British Museum.
The 2017 acquisition of Leonardo’s work was one of the most dramatic art purchases of the past century. A series of bids pushed the price way above its $100 million estimate and the previous record for a public sale of any artwork.
It was later revealed that the painting had originally been bought in the United States in 2005 for just $1,175.
It was definitively ascribed to Leonardo after significant conservation work took place before it was unveiled at an exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2011.
However, some within the art world believe the work was painted by Leonardo’s students or by another artist altogether – pointing to the painting’s inferior quality compared with the likes of the Mona Lisa.
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