Christie's in New York set a record in 2017 for one of the most expensive paintings ever made, Leonardo da Vinci's The Savior, one of the most important painters of the Renaissance. It is reported that the auction process at that time was very fast, it took only 20 minutes to "drop the hammer", so the person who was not bad money was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. However, now the disreputable crown prince may be a little upset, according to the "Sun" local time on November 14, the "Savior" painting or a fake, not from Leonardo da Vinci himself, the year's 342 million pounds (about 2.9 billion RMB) may be adrift.
The painting "The Savior" is also known as the "male mona Lisa", which shows its popularity, of course, the crown prince is not the first buyer, before him, this painting belonged to a Russian oligarch. It is widely believed that the Crown Prince did not want to buy the painting for himself, but on behalf of his father, The King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud.
It is still a mystery where the painting is hidden, supposedly somewhere in Saudi Arabia, but some say it was painted in the crown prince's £440 million (about 3.8 billion RMB) superyacht. But even if "The Savior" is really a fake, it will not be a blow to the crown prince, after all, the collective wealth of the Saudi royal family is estimated at 1 trillion pounds, almost 16 times that of the British royal family. The 36-year-old crown prince flaunts that he is working hard for the development of the country, but on the other hand, he is also "quietly" squandering, almost every shot is a big deal, and there are expensive and huge properties in many well-known cities in the world.
Although the painting "The Savior" was confirmed to be authentic after many experts verified it, it is now said by some art experts that it was painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci's assistants or students, "the master himself, because of his perfectionist personality and many other tasks to be busy, can only delegate students to help him complete the painting", there may be only a few brushstrokes on it that Leonardo da Vinci himself, "This portrait is likely to be attributed, authorized or supervised by Leonardo da Vinci". In fact, there are more than 20 other versions of the painting, written by leonardo da Vinci's students or followers, which is one of the reasons why the painting owned by the Saudi crown prince is suspected to be not genuine.