Did Mohammed ben Salman pay 382 million euros for a studio work falsely attributed to Leonardo da Vinci?
In any case, this is the thesis defended by a shocking documentary broadcast Tuesday, April 13 on France 5 and produced by the journalist and writer Antoine Vitkine.
Fruit of two years of investigation, "Salvator Mundi, the astonishing affair of the last Vinci" returns brilliantly on this series which involves international museums, auction houses, experts in works of art and French and Saudi governments.
The story of this crazy rise in the art market begins in 2005 with a brilliant intuition.
That of Robert Simon.
The New York art dealer buys this canvas presented as a late copy of Leonardo da Vinci for just $ 1,175.
In fact, the expert understands that the work dates from the 16th century.
By doing research, he even obtains confirmation that it comes from the workshop of the Renaissance master.
Very degraded, the 65 centimeters high painting was restored for several years.
After numerous expertises, the painting was finally attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and then presented for the first time in 2011 in an exhibition at the National Gallery in London.
State secret
Bought by a Geneva art dealer and then sold in 2013 to a Russian oligarch, the "Salvator Mundi" ended up becoming, on November 15, 2017, the most expensive painting in the world.
At Christie's in New York, the work sold in less than 20 minutes to 382 million euros.
The buyer is anonymous, but very quickly the name of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, returns with insistence in the international press.
According to the France 5 documentary, Riyadh then wants to put an end to the controversies over the authenticity of the painting.
This prestigious purchase should make it possible to show the face of a kingdom defending culture and the arts.
The prospect of exhibiting the "Salvator Mundi" to the eyes of the world during the major retrospective dedicated to the Renaissance master planned at the Louvre in 2019 would also be a significant diplomatic blow for "MBS".
The painting is therefore sent to Paris for a confidential expertise at the C2RMF of the Louvre, the state-of-the-art laboratory for the analysis of works of art.
"Scientific expertise has shown that Leonardo only contributed to this picture. There is no doubt. So we informed the Saudis", explains anonymously a senior French official in the film by Antoine Vitkine.
The canvas is in reality a studio work made for the most part by a disciple of Leonardo da Vinci.
According to the documentary, it is for this reason that the Louvre does not include it in its major retrospective.
The "Salvator Mundi" then becomes an affair of state between France and Saudi Arabia.
The painting, which has not been shown in public since its sale, retains all its mystery.
We do not know until where he is.
Some mention his presence on Prince ben Salman's private yacht.
Another explanation
But according to Didier Rykner of the online magazine La Tribune de l'art, there is another explanation for the absence of the "Salvator Mundi" at the major exhibition at the Louvre.
In an article devoted to the case, the specialist journalist ensures that the museum's laboratory, contrary to what is said in the documentary broadcast on France 5, would have identified the work as being by Leonardo da Vinci.
These are Saudi demands that would have prevented the integration of the painting in the retrospective.
Prince Mohammed ben Salman is said to have demanded that the painting be exhibited alongside the Mona Lisa.
The museum curators opposed it for "security and affluence problems" but also for museographic reasons: "Salvator Mundi" may well be the most expensive painting in the world, there was no reason to put it on an equal footing with Leonardo da Vinci's most important work.
To support his point, Didier Rykner publishes extracts from a book in which the patron of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, and the curator Vincent Delieuvin confirm the attribution of the painting to the Italian master.
But this book, made up of two items supposed to appear in the exhibition catalog, is only on sale for one day at the museum bookstore.
It would have been hastily withdrawn, once all hope of a loan from the table by Saudi Arabia definitively vanished.
To our colleagues from AFP, Antoine Vitkine deplores "never having been able to access this document, insofar as the Louvre denied its existence", no more than "to the conclusions of the expertise", whose results are still confidential Contacted by France 24, Antoine Viktine was not immediately available.
A sulphurous work
These latest adventures once again give material to speculations and fantasies around the latter Leonardo da Vinci.
Why make so much of a mystery about the expertise of the Louvre if the results have concluded in an authentic work?
Wouldn't Saudi Arabia have an interest in making these findings public?
Because the picture is still far from unanimous today.
From the beginning, Jacques Franck, one of the greatest specialists of the painter and inventor of the Renaissance, has "the certainty" that Leonardo da Vinci cannot be the author of this canvas which includes "enormous anatomical errors. ".
"
The infrared reflectography makes it possible to see in the oval of the face and in the hair that the general lines are very basic. This absolutely does not correspond to the line of Leonardo da Vinci", assures Jacques Franck to France 24. On the other hand, in a 'Head of Christ' made by his pupil Salaï (Gian Giacomo Caprotti di Salaï), dated 1511 and kept at the Ambrosiana in Milan, we find this type of underlying plot. "
Moreover, the art historian and painter himself assures that at the time when the "Salvator Mundi" is presumed to have been made, "Leonardo almost gave up painting to devote himself to his personal research in the scientific field. He also carried out inspections as a military engineer. He was therefore not in his workshop. "
Today, around twenty paintings are attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.
Among them, only five have never been questioned, recalls the newspaper Liberation in an article published in 2019. Like the vast majority of artists of his time, the genius of the Renaissance never signed his paintings and he does not exist. no list of his works.
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