The world’s most expensive work of art will be the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s “Louvre” as the country looks to use Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece to boost tourism.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bought the Salvator Mundi, attributed to the Italian painter, for $450m (£360m) in 2017.
The artwork has remained hidden in a vault in Geneva for years since its record purchase, but Crown Prince Mohammed now wants to use the piece as an “anchor object” to attract millions of tourists to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
According to Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, the prince wants to “build a very large museum in Riyadh.”
Speaking in a new BBC documentary titled The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince, Haykel said she asked the crown prince about the whereabouts of the Salvator Mundi and he told her he wanted to use it in his Louvre replica.
He reportedly claimed that 90 percent of his visitors came just to see another Leonardo work, the Mona Lisa.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured in 2020) bought the Salvator Mundi, attributed to the Italian painter, for $450m (£360m) in 2017.
The artwork (pictured in 2019) has been hidden in a vault in Geneva for years since its record-breaking purchase, but the prince now wants to use the piece as an “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 there would be a Leonardo painting hanging in that museum and that it would help attract tourists.
‘You could also put it another way and say that this is one of the most important paintings of Jesus in the Western world and that it is ours.’
Haykel also said Saudi culture minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud had told him that Salvator Mundi “had been stored in Geneva since (its purchase in 2017).”
“Basically, we’re waiting for the museum to be finished and then we’ll hang it there,” Haykel added.
The BBC2 documentary series, whose first episode airs tonight, explores the crown prince’s drive to turn Saudi Arabia into a cultural powerhouse, as well as his rise to become heir apparent to one of the world’s richest countries.
In addition to purchasing the Salvator Mundi, the crown prince has also hired several artistic leaders to oversee his project, including Iwona Blazwick, former director of London’s Whitechapel Gallery, and, most recently, Hartwig Fischer, former director of the British Museum.
The acquisition of the Leonardo work in 2017 was one of the most spectacular art purchases of the past century. A series of bids pushed the price well above its $100 million estimate and the previous record for a public sale of any work of art.
It was later revealed that the painting had originally been purchased in the United States in 2005 for just $1,175.
It was definitively attributed to Leonardo after extensive conservation work before its presentation in 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 another artist, pointing to the inferior quality of the painting compared to works such as the Mona Lisa.