IAN SWANKIE

This is a story of art, science, royalty, oligarchs, greed, loss, recovery, and intrigue. Leonardo’s painting of Christ as Salvator Mundi has attracted worldwide attention since it broke all the records in 2017 when it sold for over 450 million dollars having been discovered in a small auction house in New Orleans. In this lecture we trace the painting from Leonardo’s workshop over 500 years ago on its tumultuous journey through many owners. We’ll discover the fascinating provenance, examine the layers of restoration and overpaint, hear the opinions of different experts and we’ll try to guess where the painting is now.