Cette traduction de l’article Une peinture de Léonard de Vinci a 100 $millions, est-ce raisonnable ? publié le 15 novembre a été réalisée pour un lecteur anglophone.

Christie’s is auctioning a Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci on November 15 in New York, in the unexpected context of a prestigious post-war and contemporary art auction.

In 2011, this Salvator Mundi was officially presented as a painting by Leonardo da Vinci; the previous announcement of the discovery of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci dates back to 1909.

The estimate of painting is confidential, but several reliable sources announce a price around $ 100 million – the seller has received a guarantee of a minimum sale price.

In view of market prices, which have never been so high for remarkable artworks, this price would be very attractive if this Salvador Mundi, painted around 1500, had not been very much restored, after having been sold in poor condition and for a very low sum in the 1950s.

The painting visible today seems fractured in three parts: the left hand raised (painted with great virtuosity and captured by the look before the face of Christ), the face of Christ and the bust with the right hand. This lack of homogeneity is not visible in others Leonardo da Vinci’s  famous paintings, such as Mona Lisa, worth billions of euros, or La Dame à L’Hermine, bought in 2015 by the Polish state, which could be worth at least 100 million euros in the context of the advantageous transaction led by Poland, and at least 200 to 300 million euros in the international art market.

Suggesting that a Salvator Mundi was painted by Leonardo da Vinci, many copies of the model in question were painted by students and followers of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1650, the engraver Wenceslaus Hollar made a Salvator Mundi close to the model, with the mention Leonardus da Vinci pinxit. These type of testimonies could serve the defenders of the authenticity of a work of art, and its detractors.

Pierrick Moritz

Catégories :Analyses (marché de l'art), Marché de l'art, New York City, Peinture ancienne

Tags:auctions, Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi