Revealed: Saudi Crown Prince is the ACTUAL buyer of $450M Leonardo da Vinci painting after he used an obscure royal cousin as his proxy to make the record purchase sale at a NYC auction
- Saudi royal Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud was thought to have been the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' painting
- However, it is now revealed that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman used Bader as a proxy for the purchase
- It sold last month for a record breaking $450.3million during a Christie's auction in New York City
- Painting, which was authenticated in 2011, is now heading to the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum - the first museum to bear the Louvre name outside of Paris
- The museum has been billed as 'the first universal museum in the Arab world' in a sign of the oil-rich emirate's global ambitions
It has been revealed
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince was actually the buyer of a $450.3million Leonardo da Vinci painting - and his obscure cousin, who reportedly bought it, was just used as a proxy for the purchase.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bought the record breaking da Vinci painting of Christ according to U.S. government intelligence and a Saudi art-world figure familiar with the purchase, according to the
Wall Street Journal.
Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, a lesser-known figure and a distant relative of the crown prince, was the named winner of the auction, held at Christie's in November.
The Saudi art-world figure said, 'but he is a proxy for MBS (Mohammed bin Salman)'.
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the actual buyer of the record breaking $450.3million
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The iconic painting, 'Salvator Mundi,' is one of fewer than 20 paintings generally accepted as being from Leonardo Da Vinci's own hand
The Crown Prince being the purchaser of the da Vinici, a painting that was also shrouded in mystery when it first reemerged into the art wold, at least settles who owns it.
The painting depicts Christ in Renaissance clothing holding a glass orb, and art buffs have pointed out that the object appears completely see-through, when in reality the light passing through it should appear distorted.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ACTUAL-buyer-450M-da-Vinci.html#ixzz50eNkn0cM
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