Salvator Mundi

A French documentary has cast fresh doubts over the world's most expensive painting, the "Salvator Mundi" credited to Leonardo da Vinci, revealing a resulting diplomatic tussle between France and its Saudi owner. The painting of Jesus Christ, nicknamed the "male Mona Lisa", was sold at a 2017 Christies auction in New York for a record $450 million.

Since its sale for a record $450 million, the whereabouts of the "Salvator Mundi," said to be painted by Leonardo da Vinci, has become one of the art world's greatest mysteries.

When the world's most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was purchased at a Christie's sale in November 2017, the art world was a little confused.

PARIS (Reuters) - An early landscape by Vincent Van Gogh, one of the art world's most sought-after painters, sold for 7.07 million euros (6.21 million pounds) at an auction in Paris on Monday.

Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi is going to the new Louvre Abu Dhabi, the art gallery tweeted on Wednesday.

But there's still no public information on who purchased the painting at the record-setting auction in November, when the controversial artwork went for $450.3 million US at Christie's, making it the most expensive painting ever sold.

"Salvator Mundi," a painting of Christ by Leonardo Da Vinci that recently sold for a record $450 million, is heading to the Louvre Abu Dhabi in a coup for the bold new museum, it announced Dec. 6.

Even before Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi went to auction Wednesday night at Christie’s in New York, naysayers from around the art world were savaging its authenticity. Various advisers were muttering darkly, both online and in the auction previews.

The last Leonardo da Vinci painting in private hands is going to auction in New York next month - with a pre-sale estimate of around $100 million.

Christie's announced Tuesday that the depiction of Jesus, titled "Salvator Mundi," will be offered Nov. 15.