In November 2017, a single painting sold at Christie’s in New York for $450.3 million. That is the highest price ever paid for any artwork at auction. The piece is called Salvator Mundi (“Savior of the World”). It shows Jesus Christ in a blue Renaissance robe, raising his right hand in blessing and holding a clear crystal orb in his left. The painting is roughly the size of a large sheet of paper. Online posts still call the whole episode one of the wildest flips in art history.
The same panel had sold in 2005 at a small New Orleans auction for about $1,175. It was listed as a damaged copy of a lost Leonardo da Vinci work. Dealers bought it, had it cleaned and restored over several years, and by 2011 the National Gallery in London showed it as a real Leonardo. From junk status to record price in a dozen years. One X account summed it up: the wildest art flip in history. Continued below the vid
Who actually painted it?
Leonardo da Vinci left fewer than 20 accepted paintings. Experts still split on this one. Some leading scholars say most or all of it is by him. Others say he only contributed parts (especially the face and hair) and that students finished the rest. A few argue the heavy restoration makes a firm call impossible.
The Evolution of Leonardo Da Vinci https://t.co/olOHwis3qU
— ViralRushX ⚡ (@ViralRushX) January 9, 2026
During cleaning, infrared imaging showed the artist changed his mind on the blessing hand’s thumb—he painted one position, then covered it and painted another. Art historians call this a pentimento (Italian for “repentance” or second thought). Copies usually do not show that kind of change, so it counts as evidence the panel is an original, not a later imitation. The panel is walnut, a wood Leonardo used. There is fine under-drawing similar to the Mona Lisa. Yet computer analysis of the brushwork has suggested the arms and hands look less like Leonardo’s than the head does. The Louvre examined it for a big 2019 show and largely backed the Leonardo attribution, but the painting never appeared there. The owners wanted it hung next to the Mona Lisa; the museum said no for security reasons.
The panel had also been cracked, cut down, and heavily overpainted for centuries. Conservator Dianne Modestini spent years removing old varnish and fills. Critics say so much of the visible surface is modern that some jokingly call it a masterpiece by Modestini as much as by Leonardo.
“Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.”
– Leonardo da Vinci https://t.co/5PfMFZzrYN
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) September 3, 2026
The crystal orb that does not behave like glass
The orb is the other big puzzle. A solid glass or crystal sphere acts like a lens: it magnifies, inverts, and distorts whatever is behind it. Christ’s robe behind the orb looks almost normal—little distortion, no inverted image. Leonardo was deep into optics studies around 1500. He filled notebooks with diagrams of light bending through glass. Why paint the orb wrong?
One theory is that he did it on purpose so the religious image would not look grotesque or distracting. Another is that the orb is rock crystal with tiny inclusions. In 2020, computer scientists at the University of California, Irvine ran 3-D renderings. They showed that a thin hollow glass sphere (walls only about 1.3 mm thick) under the right lighting can match what the painting shows, using materials and knowledge available in Leonardo’s day. The little white speckles on the orb fit either hollow glass or crystal inclusions.
Either way, the orb still sparks arguments. Some say the lack of proper refraction is a reason to doubt full Leonardo authorship. Others say the science backs him.
?? ARCHAEOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH: Five Da Vinci Inventions That Could Have Revolutionized Technology
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https://t.co/JLhF714EgU https://t.co/KUEg5XTJsL— Ancient Origins (@ancientorigins) July 27, 2026
Where it went and why it vanished
Prince Badr bin Abdullah al-Saud bid for it at the auction. Reporting established he was acting for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The painting was supposed to go to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It never appeared there. Rumors placed it on MBS’s yacht Serene for a time. Later accounts say it sits in a Geneva vault or Saudi storage, waiting for a new cultural complex. It has not been shown publicly since the 2017 sale. One recent X post wondered whether it will ever be seen again, or even whether it still exists in its sold condition.
The art market treated the National Gallery exhibition and the Leonardo name as enough to justify the price. Outside the market, the questions remain open: how much is Leonardo, how much is restoration, what the orb is doing optically, and where the panel is right now. Billionaire money and institutional branding moved the number from four figures to nine. The physical object and the expert disagreements have not moved as cleanly. That gap is what keeps the story alive nearly a decade later.
— The Whatfinger News Team: Ben and Lisa, with Grok on Edits
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