Da Vinci's painting was auctioned for the equivalent of 9.8 billion crowns

New York - For $450.3 million (9.8 billion crowns), a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci was auctioned on Wednesday in New York. The work depicting Jesus Christ, titled Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World), thus became, according to the auction house Christie's, the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. Pre-auction estimates valued the piece at $100 million (2.2 billion crowns).

The auction lasted, according to AFP, just 19 minutes, starting at $70 million (1.5 billion crowns). The identity of the buyer has not yet been disclosed by the auction house.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 to 1519), who was also engaged in sculpture, architecture, inventions, and music, painted only about 20 works, including perhaps the most famous piece titled Mona Lisa. However, according to various expert opinions, only 15 or 16 canvases have survived to this day, of which only Salvator Mundi was still privately owned. The rediscovery of the painting, which has repeatedly vanished throughout history, therefore created a global sensation.

Salvator Mundi was created sometime around 1500 or rather later, as experts judge by the delicacy of the facial contours typical of da Vinci's work after 1500. Christ is depicted in the oil painting on walnut wood dressed in Renaissance clothing, raising his right hand to bestow a blessing and holding a crystal globe in his left hand.

The painting was first listed in the inventory of the collection of Charles I of Stuart in the early 17th century, compiled after the king's execution. Expert Luke Syson believes that the painting was created for the French royal family and was brought to England by Henrietta Marie of Bourbon, who married Charles I. The work likely remained in the crown's possession for some time but vanished in the 18th century.

Eventually, the painting resurfaced in 1900 as a work by Leonardo's follower Bernardino Luini. A photograph from 1912 shows that Christ's face and hair had been overpainted. In 1958, it was sold at a Sotheby's auction for 45 pounds and again disappeared for another 50 years. It reemerged in 2005 at a regional auction in the United States and was restored two years later, the auction house stated on its website.

Most recently, the painting changed hands after a unique exhibition in London that took place in 2011 and featured nine works by this Italian artist. At that time, it ended up in the hands of an unnamed European collector.

It is believed that the previous owner was Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who reportedly paid $127.5 million (2.8 billion crowns) for it in a private sale in 2013, according to information from artnet.com.

According to Christie's auction house, Salvator Mundi, with the price it fetched, dethroned Pablo Picasso's Algerian Women as the most expensive painting sold at auction, which sold for $179.4 million (currently 3.9 billion crowns) in 2015. In third place is still the second painting, Reclining Nude by Amedeo Modigliani, which a buyer paid $170.4 million (currently 3.7 billion crowns) for two years ago.

The highest known amount that someone has paid for a painting was, according to the AP agency, $300 million (currently 6.5 billion crowns), which a buyer paid in a private deal in 2015 for Willem de Kooning's Exchange.