The Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) is a Leonardo da Vinci painting that claims to depict Jesus Chrisdt. It recently sold for 400 million dollars at Christie’s Auction, purchased by Sheik MBS.
This was an extraordinary event, and there is a documentary about it which you may buy or rent on iTunes or Amazon. It’s called “Savior For Sale.” This is one of my favorite DVDs and is better than watching a movie.
Some people may ask: Is this real? – because it involves such anxiety-provoking twists and turns.
What is interesting about "Savior For Sale" is the battle between brilliant, high-cultured minds in the art world who were in disagreement over whether the painting was authentic, which is kind of a big deal when you have just spent four hundred million dollars buying it.
Every classical oil painting has a weird, entangled story behind it.
The New York art expert who bought the painting for a few thousand dollars, paid an expert to clean it up. She took several years to fix it, but uncoverd a secret that would lead to a controversy and the art world taking a keen interest in the painting.
A Russian billionaire living in Monaco, bought the painting after tense negotiations in New York City, which was played up in the documentary. That was about when the newspapers began to circulate a story that the “Salvator Mundi” was probably a fraud.
When the wealthy Russian heard the rumors, and thinking that he had been cheated, he quickly placed the painting with Christie's Auction House, perhaps hoping some fool would buy it for half-price.
The representative at Christie's happened to be an extremely motivated hustler. He summoned all his extraordinary talents and knowledge of the art world and publicity to create highly successful events to showcase the "Salvator Mundi," attracting attention from the public and mainstream media.
In a powerful, well-organized move, the painting was put on display for a limited time, and this scene was featured in the documentary about it. They set up a camera to focus, not just on the painting, but on the faces of the people who stood in line for hours to view it. The gallery was shrouded in darkness except for a light on the painting and another light on the faces of the people who were looking at it. It became a huge social event in New York City.
The problem I have with this event is that the curators played up the angle that the painting was the face of God. This painting is ugly and the person in the painting does not look divine at all. He's just some random Italian that Da Vinci used as a model.
Jesus Christ has appeared to a lot of American prophets who all say that he looks Middle Eastern. He has olive skin tone and Middle Eastern features.
The other problem is that not only is the painting not Jesus, but dumb Americans say that Jesus is God when the Bible literally says that Jesus is a creation of God, and Jesus himself refers to God as his father.
So now we have two huge lies spun as truths, and a bunch of dumb Americans standing in front of the painting with dewy eyes because they think that's God. Even that dummy Leonardo Dicaprio is seen looking at the painting with wet eyes. All the pageantry paid off when the painting sold for four hundred million dollars to Sheik MBS at the auction house attended by hundreds of powerful, cultured and wealthy people, all of whom were taken on a rollercoaster ride and left feeling stunned at how high a price the painting eventually sold for. No one expected it. The auction house got a fifty million dollar commission.
The biggest irony of all is that if I had owned it, I would have thrown it in the trash. It's the ugliest painting I've ever seen, and it doesn't even look like Jesus. What is weird is that he looks like Lucifer the devil in another oil painting, one that Jacob Rothschild owned. I would not want such an ugly painting in my home. This painting is so ugly that I almost didn't want to show a pic of him. How is it that no one else sees this?
The Lord is dignified and intelligent-looking. He should not be portrayed in the paintings of fools such as Da Vinci.
(see below for a picture of the death shroud that Jesus wore, which when he was brought back to life by God, emblazoned his image on it).
The documentary provides a good lesson in hyping the value of absolute junk.
I highly recommend buying it because it is one of those movies that survives repeat viewings and actually gets better with every subsequent viewing.
The art of the deal is on full display in the craft of selling art to wealthy fools for extreme high prices, which was something that Bijan Pakzad, who was a friend of my father, was good at doing.
The documentary is called: "SAVIOR FOR SALE"
DEATH SHROUD OF REAL JESUS (note the bloodstains from the crown of thorns):
