Meet the world's most expensive painting

A long lost Leonardo Da Vinci painting yesterday became the world's most expensive painting, after selling at auction for an astronomical amount.

The 500-year-old painting has been the subject of great scrutiny for years, only recently (well, 12 years ago, so 'comparitively' recently) being declared a legitimate 'Leo'.

At one point, it was sold as a work by a Leonardo imitator for just £45.

Called Salvator Mundi or Saviour of the World, the piece was only expected to fetch around US$100 million, according to auction house Christies. It ended up selling for US$450 million – or A$592 million.

But as art critic Alastair Sooke said, discovering a new da Vinci painting is akin to “finding a new planet”.

Although he's the most popular and possibly greatest artist ever, only 15 Leonardo Da Vinci paintings are known to have survived.

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I don't think the legendary Micha will reply somehow, because he, whoever  he is, did not write the post and he may  not have even seen it. I must admit to becoming a tad curious as to why you are so bitter towards him and why you see his hand in everything I and others write. My god he must have done something awful to you to bring on such enmity. As for my post it was a recollection of events that took place a long time ago and which are so vivid in my mind because of the witnessing of some most unusual artifacts left behind by a painter with such great imagination. It seems that improvements have been made to the museum and I for one would gladly return if the opportuniy arose.

Isah is actually an estranged cousin from the Balkans. Because of his dubious activities he had to flee that country. He ended up in South Africa where he claimed to be a dentist. After relieving most of the town's population of their teeth, the authorities ran him out of the country. Somehow he ended up in Terra Australis. 

When the rest of our family found out about his misadventures to put it mildly, we refused to have anything to do with him, he changed his name to Brocky and is now infamous for being the black sheep of our family.

Unfortunately, he has never forgiven me for booting him out of our family and now takes every opportunity to harass me. My advice for what it's worth, is try not to engage too much with him sageman. The poor fellow is in bad shape. I try to ignore him as much as is humanly possible.

Many thanks MICHA for your very enlightening  post which goes a long way in explaining the background of this, which was a puzzling situation to me and perhaps to others. I trust that this is an accurate version of events and I have absolutely no reason to doubt you. However I  did think for a second or two that you may have been the illustrious Sacha Baron Cohen pulling my leg!

(Sacha-Micha-Sacha-Micha has a certain ring to it?) But then maybe your cousin couldn't be Borat although Kazakhstan is not too far away from the Balkan States! 

This aside I particularly liked the line about the relieving of teeth although ghastly to the sufferers (shades of Nazi concentration camps), I had a mental vision of hundreds of gummy people chomping away unsuccessfully on Boerewors sausage. Your cousin probably thought he was starting an Aparteeth policy and segregating the black teeth from the white teeth, and now he is Terror Australis I will certainly keep away as I even hate the good dentists, no not really!!

sageman

In a world littered with witless people, it is very nice to welcome a genuine wit on board.

Great post which had me laughing from beginning to end! 

Of course you would complement yourself you add nothing to any discussion just endless attacks on women ..

Hi HOLA thanks for your info I must say that I'm not heavily into opera and with a lot of them I can't wait until the Fat Lady sings. I do however like snatches of Carmen, William Tell and Madam Butterfly and particularly like Porgy and Bess(" Bess you is my woman now!")( "I got  plenty of nuthin ")

Glad to see your son is into opera rather than Rap!  I would like to see the  Victorian productions but I am a few thousand kms away and I spend a lot of time groping--sand that is !!

As for magic puddings the only ones I was introduced to as a child were my mum's xmas pudding and her unbelievable bread pudding which were certainly magical. I can see why Norman liked to stir the pot so he could lick the spoon perhaps?

HI FLEUR I liked your post on Lindsay's  ' Crucified Venus ' which probably shows his anti Christian mindset. It depicts various figures that he felt were important to get across his message. He has a devil overseeing the crucifixion of a poor jesus like girl. A monk of sorts who is about to give her a hammering. A Puritan like figure probably reading some dogma while a Cromwellian soldier perhaps representing some kind of law and order is in attendance. In addition there is a priest holding up a traditional christian symbol and other  onlookers.What all this means is anybodies guess! Lindsay was a very deep and complex person on one hand and a fine amateur boxer on the other able to slug it out with the best of them! You may have seen a good photo of him on this link:-

wyldesart.com.au/norman-lindsay.html

Here you can find 'I am thinking' a nice etching of a comely girl and various other etchings of his. Not sure what his Black Bull means but probably symbolic.? Also there is a menu on the left where you can access some other artists works such as blue poles etc.etc.( must go now as missing the cricket !)

I am sure that Somebody can add your discussion with yourself Micha .

Sageman has a point re that Lindsay painting

With influences from Machiavelli and Buckminster Weinstein, the transformation of the soul slowly being crafted from both opaque and transparent layers is clearly visible by the shape of Venus's breasts  and her habit of shaving all her bodily hair.

As wavering forms become distorted through the physical and emotional vibrations generated by the actions of the clergy, the viewer is left with a testament to the possibilities of our era.

Great tits as well 

Interesting how the view sexuality changes . 

Lindsay was obviously out of step with his time .

Sex is not only the basis of life, it is the reason for life.
—Norman Lindsay

Trite as was Lindsay

 

 


Hello sageman…

Thanks for the link…yes that’s a really good picture of Lindsay..he appears such a gentle looking man.. who would believe he could produce such complex art!! I have to admit some of his art is quite scary and back in his day he was shunned quite a bit in his town because some believed he was satanic…apparently he suffered heavy bouts of depression and I am guessing some of his scarier works must have been created during these dark periods…

You mention the Black Bull..I’m not absolutely sure what it means but he did have a fascination with Spain and visited that country several times..He painted pictures with bulls namely..The Keeper of the Bulls..The Bullfight and Procession of the Bulls..there might have been others..

Coming back to “The Crucified Venus”…you may already know this.. his second wife Rose was the model ..a picture of her below..

Image result for norman lindsay and wife rose

Tell you what I found out about a year ago…in the late 1930s Lindsay became a very close friend of Sir Keith Murdoch..he was very instrumental in encouraging Sir Keith to collect and take an active interest in art. With Murdoch’s money to back him he travelled to London and bought pictures for him. On his return from London.. Murdoch advised him to apply for the appointment of “Keeper of the Prints” at the National Gallery of Victoria and in 1941 Lindsay was given the position of director..

Interesting persona to say the least -:)

 

 

 

Again I must thank you for your kind message Micha. You, being a wordsmith of note, know , as I have come to realise, that sometimes when the words are there you have to let them out or forever hold your piece. The trouble is we don't know how long forever is on this Mortal Coil....

Thanks FLEUR for your info. I didn't know about Rose but " A rose by any other name would smell as sweet " Our Norman could certainly pick them or should I say pluck them! Yes his visits to Spain  would have influenced him as they did Ernest Hemingway another notable talent who also was fascinated with bulls. He wrote some fine novels including a nonfiction ' Death in the afternoon' concerning bullfighting. Sadly he committed suicide eventually after bouts of mental depression. Norman on the other hand was having a ball and so was Rose although depression was also a factor as you say. Somehow it seems that prodigiously talented people can live on the edge of darkness.

A thing is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, the market sets the value, nothing else.

Salvator Mundi: Record-breaking $591m Da Vinci painting heads to Abu Dhabi's new Louvre

:) Just in case you were wondering where it would end up.

Full ABC story.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is an art and civilisation museum, located in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The museum was inaugurated on November 8th 2017. It is part of a thirty-year agreement between the city of Abu Dhabi and the French government. The museum is located on the Saadiyat Island Cultural District. It is approximately 24,000 square metres in size making it the largest art museum in the Arabian peninsula. The final cost of the construction is expected to be about €600 million. In addition, US$525 million was paid by Abu Dhabi to be associated with the Louvre name, and an additional $747 million will be paid in exchange for art loans, special exhibitions and management advice. Source.

Maybe building up assets for when the oil runs out?

Just another business deal. 

Left: Image of Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud from the SRMG website. Right: Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi.

 

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