‘Salvator Mundi’ May Be in Storage in Geneva, But It Could Go on View to the Public in Riyadh

Salvator Mundi, a $450 million painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, has not been seen publicly since it sold at Christie’s in 2017, the year it became the most expensive artwork ever auction. And the reason for that, according to a new BBC report, is that it may be held in storage in Geneva.

The good news, per the BBC, is that its owner, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, may eventually make it publicly viewable. According to that report, the crown prince, often labeled MBS for short, plans to display it in a future museum in Riyadh, where the painting will serve as a cultural anchor, similar to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.

The piece is based in large part on information the BBC was given by Saad al-Jabr, a senior security official with the Saudi government with connections at the highest level of Western intelligence organizations, and interviews with “both Saudi friends and opponents of MBS, as well as senior Western spies and diplomats.”

It details MBS’s alleged involvement in the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, something that MBS has denied, and traces the crown prince’s rise in the Middle East. According to the report, MBS’s purchase of Salvator Mundi was part of a larger effort to modernize Saudi Arabia.

Those efforts extend beyond art and into sports, with significant investments in global sporting events including a bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034, as well as multimillion dollar tennis and golf tournaments, in what has been termed “sportswashing.” 

For years, it has been rumored that Salvator Mundi is being held on MBS’s yacht. But Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, told the BBC that the painting is being stored in Geneva.

The attribution of the Salvator Mundi to Leonardo has been a subject of intense debate within the art world. Some experts argue that the painting’s style doesn’t align with Leonardo’s known works, particularly in terms of the figure’s proportions and facial features. The painting has undergone significant restoration, raising questions about the authenticity of underlying layers and details.