The World’s Most Expensive Painting of Salvator Mundi is Endangered on the Superyacht of the Saudi Prince

RIYADH – The world’s most expensive painting is reportedly threatened with “extinction” because it is stored on a luxury yacht (superyacht) belongs to the Crown Prince Saudi Arabia ; Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) .

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported the painting “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci that has been hanging from the cruise ship Serene as high as 400 feet until the end of last year. This phenomenal painting depicts a portrait of Jesus Christ looking straight up while holding a crystal ball.

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The Serene is the world’s largest private yacht that MBS purchased for $ 600 million from a Russian vodka tycoon in 2016.

The existence of the Salvator Mundi painting has been kept secret since it was bought in November 2017 for $ 450 million by a little-known Saudi prince acting as Prince MBS’s representative.

Steven Erisoty, an art conservator who has worked on master paintings before the 19th century, said the seawater surrounding the cruise ship could harm the 500-year-old painting.

“Painting is complex, layered structure, and likes stability,” Erisoty told WSJ, yesterday. “The painting is already unstable,” he continued referring to previous restoration efforts.

He warned that the painting’s wood finish and paint pigment could be damaged if it continues to experience fluctuating temperatures while on a Saudi cruise ship.

Erisoty said that in order not to get “hurt”, the painting needed to be displayed in a room with strict temperature and humidity controls.

The Serene cruise ship is being transferred to a Dutch shipyard for maintenance. There are other reports that the world’s most expensive painting has now been moved to a secret location in Saudi Arabia.

The painting by Leonardo da Vinci has caused diplomatic rifts.

Earlier this week, a French documentary alleged that Salvator Mundi was not shown at the Louvre two years ago because the French government refused to bow to pressure from Riyadh to present the controversial work as “100 percent Da Vinci”.

A senior French government official reveals in the film that the painting arrived in Paris in June 2019, ahead of da Vinci’s famous exhibition, and was later analyzed in the Louvre’s technical laboratory.

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