Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Christ’ Painting Was Just Sold for a Massive Amount of Money

Today, an original painting by Leonardo da Vinci long thought to be lost or destroyed was sold for $450 million at Christie’s Auction in New York City.

“Salvator Mundi” — or, “Savior of the World,” is the only da Vinci painting that is currently privately owned. Upon its sale, it set the world record for the most expensive piece of artwork ever sold at auction. Even the experts and organizers who speculated before the auction didn’t imagine the price would shoot up so high — the prevailing wisdom yesterday was that the painting would go for about $100 million.

“Savior of the World” was lost for many years, though the fine art community always knew of its existence. The portrait of Jesus Christ was known to have been owned at one time by King Charles I of England. Experts and historians believed it had been lost or destroyed some time in the years since.

According to the Christie Auction, the painting resurfaced just recently at a smaller auction in the United States, but it was painted over and in desperate need of restoration. Slowly, a team of experts removed the outer layers of paint, and determined that was was underneath was a Leonardo da Vinci original.

The price tag of $450 million absolutely shatters the previous record for most expensive sale of a painting — back in 2015, “Women of Algiers (Version O)” by Pablo Picasso sold for $179.4 million.

“Salvator Mundi” brings the count of da Vinci’s surviving paintings up to sixteen in total, though the rest are enshrined within museums around the world.