The world’s most expensive artwork is set to become the centrepiece of the ‘Louvre of Saudi Arabia’ as the country looks to use Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece to boost tourism.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bought the Salvator Mundi, attributed to the Italian painter, in 2017 for $450 million (£360 million).
The artwork has been hidden in a Geneva vault for years since the record purchase, but Crown Prince Mohammed now wants to use the artwork as an “anchor object” to attract millions of tourists to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
According to Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princetown University, the prince wants to “build a very large museum in Riyadh.”
In a new BBC documentary titled The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince, Haykel said he asked the Crown Prince where the Salvator Mundi was and was told he wanted to use the statue in his replica of the Louvre.
He claimed that 90 percent of visitors came specifically to see another work by Leonardo: the Mona Lisa.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured in 2020) bought the Salvator Mundi, attributed to the Italian painter, in 2017 for $450 million (£360 million).
The artwork (pictured in 2019) has lain unnoticed in a Geneva vault for years since the record purchase, but the prince now wants to use the artwork as an “anchor object” to attract millions of tourists to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
According to Haykel, Crown Prince Mohammed’s purchase was also a deliberate attack on Saudi Arabia’s conservative Islamist leaders, as it was never officially approved.
He said in the documentary: ‘The idea was that there would be a painting by Leonardo in that museum and that it would attract tourists.
You could also put a different spin on it [it] and say that this is one of the most important paintings of Jesus in the Western world and that we own it.’
Haykel also said that Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, had told him that Salvator Mundi “has been in storage in Geneva ever since.” [its 2017 purchase]’
“It’s actually a matter of waiting until the museum is ready and then it will be hung in the museum,” Haykel adds.
The BBC2 documentary series, which airs its first episode tonight, explores the Crown Prince’s drive to turn Saudi Arabia into a cultural powerhouse, and his rise to the throne of one of the world’s richest countries.
In addition to purchasing the Salvator Mundi, the Crown Prince has also recruited a number of leading artists to oversee his project, including Iwona Blazwick, the former director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and most recently Hartwig Fischer, the former director of the British Museum.
The purchase of Leonardo’s work in 2017 was one of the most dramatic art acquisitions of the past century, with a series of bidding events pushing the price well above its $100 million estimate and the previous record for a public sale of a work of art.
It was later revealed that the painting was originally purchased in the United States in 2005 for just $1,175.
It was definitively attributed to Leonardo after extensive restoration work was carried out before being unveiled at an exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2011.
However, some in the art world believe that the work was painted by Leonardo’s students, or by another artist. They point to the painting’s inferior quality compared to, for example, the Mona Lisa.