New world record, screamed the art world last week, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” becoming the most expensive painting ever after it sold for $450 million at auction.

We covered that HERE, but since that joyous day (for the auctioneers, at least) it hasn’t been all rainbows.

Putting the allegations that it’s actually a fraud to the side (you can read those HERE), the latest spat boils down to ego.

Business Insider with this:

Thomas Campbell, the embattled former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — the biggest art museum in the Western Hemisphere — and one of the painting’s previous co-owners, art dealer Robert Simon, are arguing about the painting on Instagram.

“450 million dollars?! Hope the buyer understands conservation issues,” Campbell wrote in an Instagram post shortly after the painting sold.

Robert Simon, one of the painting’s previous owners, commented on Campbell’s post that he found the post “disrespectful.”

“This is an incredibly ill-informed and mean-spirited comment about one of the most respected painting conservators in the world, one who incidentally spent many years diligently working at your former institution,” Simon wrote.

Some art world observers find the spat less about conservation and more about the enormous sum of money spent the painting, which was sold by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and sold to an anonymous buyer. The work went for more than twice the price of the next-most expensive painting sold at public auction. It was also the first time a third-party marketing agency was used to promote a sale.

“The art world is all about social media presence and marketing now,” an employee at a major New York gallery told INSIDER. “So for the Met director to throw shade on Instagram seems pretty on par with how the art world is going.”

Kiff, the high society world of fine art has now been reduced to high school social media theatrics.

Concerns about how the now iconic painting will be conserved aren’t exactly new, and Simon has already had to defend how the painting was handled during his ownership tenure:

The conservation of the painting under Simon’s co-ownership (along with art dealers Alex Parish and Warren Adelson) was in the hands of Dianne Modestini…

“I personally observed the conservation process on the Salvator Mundi and can attest to the absolute honesty, modesty, and respect that Dianne Modestini brought to her work on the painting—carried out at the highest ethical standards of the profession,” Simon wrote. “Given the prevalence of so many foolish remarks in both serious and social media, I have refrained from responding, but feel compelled to do so now.”

In the same thread, Campbell [above] dismissed Simon’s concerns.

“I have [the] greatest respect for Modestini,” Campbell wrote. “Was simply remarking, as so many others have, on extensive amount of conservation. Seems to be a lot of over-sensitivity out there”…

“My comment was a legitimate response to an extraordinary price,” Campbell wrote. “Christie’s doesn’t need your abusive bullying to defend itself. And my comment certainly wasn’t an attack on a highly competent conservator. If you don’t enjoy my occasional Instagram posts then don’t follow me.”

There’s more, with auction house Christie’s wading in, but that’s quite enough pettiness for now.

Take a break from posting on Instagram, chaps, it will do you some good.

[source:businsider]