A Leonardo Da Vinci painting has just broken the record for a work of art sold at an auction, at a final price of $450.3 million with fees.
The painting, “Salvator Mundi”, surpassed the 2015 sale of Picasso’s “Women of Algiers” for $179.4 million, which also took place at Christie’ Rockefeller Center HQ. The crowd was shocked by the 19-minute duel, and the winning buyer was not disclosed immediately.
Christie’s had been actively marketing the works from this year’s auction, having hired an external agency to advertise for the first time in the auction house’s history.
“It’s been a brilliant marketing campaign,” said Pyms Gallery director Alan Hobart. “This is going to be the future.”
Others are more critical of the way this campaign played out.
“This was a thumping epic triumph of branding and desire over connoisseurship and reality,” New York art adviser Todd Levin said.
The New York Times shared footage of the last moments of the bidding war:
