ITALY – CIRCA 2002: Paris, Musée Du Louvre St John the Baptist, 1513-1516, by Leonardo da Vinci … [+]
Five years after the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened and the concurrent $450 million sale of the Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) at Christie’s auction house, a new exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci works has opened in the Middle East. St. John the Baptist (1513-1516) is the crowning work in the showcase, alongside an impressive fusion repertoire of Woman in Blue (1901) by Pablo Picasso, as well as Italian Renaissance and Western contemporary artists.
The Jean Nouvel-designed building is an architectural masterpiece, incorporating the Arab element of the dome while experimenting with access by foot or by boat. For this showcase, celebrities from around the world will be in attendance, including a performance by American singer John Legend on November 12.
“I love that the Louvre Abu Dhabi is a universal museum that tells the stories of all of our cultural connection,” Legend said before the performance began.
The Louvre in Paris held a Leonardo da Vinci retrospective from 2019 to 2020 to mark 500 years after the artist’s death, the subject of equal parts fanfare and controversy. Despite such important inclusions as the same Saint John the Baptist work held in Abu Dhabi and La Belle Ferronnière, the $450 million depiction of Christ was markedly absent.
People sit on a bench during a visit of the exhibition ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ at The Louvre Museum in … [+]
Rumors abounded. The owner of the Salvator Mundi is reported to be Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, but the work has not been seen since the 2017 sale. Kenny Schachter broke a story that the painting was held on the Crown Prince’s yacht, but that has never been formally confirmed.
Salvator Mundi was previously owned by Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who purchased the work with the aid of Swiss freeport magnate Yves Bouvier. Bouvier and Rybolovlev continue to fight an international legal battle over allegations of fraud and misconduct. Rybolovlev’s legal filings assert that Bouvier defrauded him out of approximately $1 billion in ill-gotten commissions.
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 15: Agents speak on their phones with their clients while bidding on at the … [+]
Despite the swirl of mystery surrounding the single, missing work, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is making good on its promise to be a beacon of international education and cultural enrichment in the Middle East and beyond. The museum website does not currently provide the dates of the showcase, but encourages continued engagement, such as with their recent show, Impressionism: Pathways to Modernity, that debuted in October.
A view of the exterior of the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum on November 8, 2017. More than a decade in the … [+]
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