Some super duper rich guy buys a Leonardo da Vinci painting for $450.30 million dollars. P23.1 Billion pesos plus fees and taxes for this 500 year old oil painting called Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World). With P20.5 billion pesos, you could save millions of people from hunger.
This painting was sold in 1958 at an auction for 45 pounds sterling. It then disappeared for 50 years. It reappeared in 2005 initially thought as a copy. The new owners restored it and thoroughly research about its history and authenticity. Through the years the painting was sent to historians, scholars, curators, different museums and galleries for examination and authentication.
In 2010 a consensus was met that indeed Salvator Mundi is an original work done by the master himself Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
(photo from the front page of Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Speaking of paintings, I was at the Cardinal Santos Hospital yesterday (again) and I saw this two Baldemor paintings displayed at the hotel lobby.
Sold for P200,000.
Manuel Baldemor is a prolific artist. I can’t imagine how many pieces of art he churns out in a month.
