Christie’s thought it would be big, but they didn’t think it would be R6,5 billion big.

The painting referred to is none other than Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” which we introduced to you yesterday – here – when it was predicted that it would fetch $100 million.

Because, you know, we thought that was a lot.

But then, yesterday, the painting was sold for $450 million (R6,5 billion), topping a world record for any work of art sold at an auction, CBNC:

The highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction had been $179.4 million (152 million euros), for Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O)” in May 2015, also at Christie’s in New York. The highest known sale price for any artwork had been $300 million (253 million euros), for Willem de Kooning’s “Interchange,” sold privately in September 2015 by the David Geffen Foundation to hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin.

Referred to as the Holy Grail of the Old Masters, it’s one of fewer than 20 paintings by da Vinci known to exist and the only one in private hands.

Here’s a better look:

Nice, but is it R6,5 billion nice? Why not.

[source:cnbc]