The back page of the book is the full-bleed of the infra-red reflectography of the Salvator Mundi
This is, or could have been, a review of a book that was never published, the existence of which has never been officially acknowledged. Its non-publication by Hazan for the Musée du Louvre coincided with the non-appearance of the
Salvator Mundi in the French museum’s remarkable exhibition,
Leonardo da Vinci, in 2019-20. The authors, who miss this significant item from their lists of publications, are Vincent Delieuvin, the curator responsible, and two members of the national Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France, Myriam Eveno and Elisabeth Ravaud. The non-book seems to have flitted momentarily across the shelves of the Louvre bookshop on 18 December 2019. (It should be understood, in relation to what follows, that I am not confessing to owning a copy of the non-book.)
A row has broken out after a new documentary on the world s most expensive painting, the
Salvator Mundi, claimed that the Musée du Louvre doubted the painting s attribution
as a 100% autograph work by Leonardo da Vinci. Although the museum has not publicly commented on the film s assertions, an unpublished booklet on the Louvre s scientific examination of the painting has been leaked to several media outlets, contradicting the film s conclusions.
In the film,
The Savior for Sale, broadcast on French television tonight, two anonymous officials in French President Emmanuel Macron’s government make the claims that the Louvre questioned the attribution.
What is the most characteristic element of a
Salvator Mundi, the archetypal image of Christ as Saviour of the World? It is Christ’s right hand raised in blessing. The left hand cradling an orb completes the type, which was fashionable in north-eastern Italy from around 1500, originating in Northern Europe.
But now, two very different kinds of examination of Leonardo’s enigmatic picture, which sold for $450m at Christie’s New York in 2017 and is now owned by the Saudi Arabian culture ministry, suggest that this “
Salvator Mundi” was initially conceived as just a head and shoulders, with the hands and arms added later on. One analysis was conducted by the Louvre’s experts, when Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture permitted detailed scientific analysis of its picture in 2018; the other was conducted by a computer scientist and an art historian, and has just been accepted for publication in The MIT Press’s