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A sleeper is a painting
that's being offered
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almost entirely at auction...
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which is clearly by a much better artist
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than the auction house has recognized.
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A sleeper hunter is someone
who looks for these mistakes.
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And that's what I do. That's what I do.
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So I find this painting that's cataloged
as after Leonardo.
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It's a copy after the lost Salvator Mundi,
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the savior of the world,
that we know Leonardo did.
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Jesus is not an easy sell.
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But for whatever reason...
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this picture attracts my attention.
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And I call Robert Simon.
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We have purchased paintings together.
We've done very well with them.
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He enjoys the same hunt.
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Alex called me and said...
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"Have you seen this picture
down in New Orleans Auction?"
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He said, "Yeah, I saw it too.
What shall we do?"
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And we decided to buy it.
We're gonna buy it.
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We agreed on a price.
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Alex arranges for the shipment.
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I think it was sent UPS
on a truck to New York.
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And we're rolling.
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-Rolling.
-Yeah.
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-Rolling.
-Good.
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I'm gonna open with a very broad question.
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Why do you think the Salvator Mundi
has caused so much fuss?
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First, let me say this.
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This is the most improbable story
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that has, I think,
ever happened in the art market.
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Everybody wanted it to be a Leonardo.
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And so everybody took
the most optimistic view they could
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of it as a Leonardo.
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And perhaps it is a Leonardo.
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It's not even a good painting!
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I believe that a picture has its own power
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and that power is experienced only truly
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when you're standing in front of it.
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This is simply a matter of economics
when you boil down to it.
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And greed. Basic human foibles.
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Money.
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The picture came in a cardboard box,
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which is kind of what you'd expect
for the sort of money we spent.
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And I took it out...
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and two things are immediately apparent.
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And I mean... within five seconds.
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One, there's clearly
a great deal of overpaint.
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Restoration on the face of Christ.
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And two...
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there's clearly a large swath
of the painting...
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that is untouched, un-restored...
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and absolutely period.
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By that, I mean circa 1500.
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I'm thinking,
"This is an extraordinary object."
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But what it is, I don't know.
But we have to find out.
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It's a work from around the year 1500,
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probably by one of these artists
so close to the master
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that it deserved, really, to have
the best possible care.
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I'm Evan Beard.
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I run the Art Services group
at Bank of America.
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We're the largest lender against art.
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We manage about 100 museum endowments
around the country.
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This picture,
it tells both an art historical story,
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but it also tells the history
of financial markets,
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tells the history of the rise
of social and cultural capital.
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So they bring the picture to probably
the top art conservation professional
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in the entire field,
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Dianne Modestini.
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He comes over
carrying this painting in...
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a black plastic garbage bag.
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And I take the painting out of the bag
and put it on an easel.
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There are very lovely passages
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and other passages
are very damaged, overpainted.
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I still didn't know what it was
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and I brought it to Mario in the bedroom.
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Mario Modestini is a celebrated
painting conservator of all time.
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He also vetted the Ginevra de' Benci
for the National Gallery.
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The only Leonardo
in the Western Hemisphere.
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This is a man who's seen
a lot of Leonardo
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and he might be interested
in seeing the picture.
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At the time, he was 98 years old
and housebound.
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I said, "Mario, look at this picture.
What do you think of it?"
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And he suddenly
kind of paid attention to it.
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And he said,
"This is by a very great artist."
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And he said, "I don't know who it is,
but it's the generation after Leonardo."
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I took some solvents from the cabinet,
acetone and mineral spirits,
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and I rolled cotton wool on a stick.
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Then I began slowly to remove
the varnish and some retouching.
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And one of the things
that immediately appears
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is this thumb.
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A first position of the thumb.
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This is called "pentiment."
It's an artist's first idea.
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The thumb was subsequently moved
to a different position.
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And you don't usually find that in a copy,
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but it's not proof
that it's definitely the original.
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At least it wasn't proof for me.
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As I remove retouching,
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the thumb appears immediately,
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as does...
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a lot of damage in the head.
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I notice that there's
a very wide white fill,
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quite recent, that is covering a crack.
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This crack that runs through the panel
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is actually from a knot
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that's low down in the center.
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Next day, Dianne calls me.
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"Bob, I've cleaned the picture.
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And you have to come over and see it."
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I'm faced with two things.
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One is a picture that I see
is severely damaged,
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but all of the very amateurish
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brownish, reddish paint that was
an attempt to create a beard is gone.
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So I knew that it really
needed conservation treatment
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at the very highest level.
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Mario dies in January.
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And I began to work on the Salvator Mundi
in my studio.
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Alone.
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I would...
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carry on a conversation
with Mario the entire time.
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I didn't talk to him out loud.
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Except maybe once or twice.
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But I would just have
this dialogue with him in my head.
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I could hear him say,
"He looks like he has a toothache."
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And I would do it over again.
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Or he would say, "Nose is crooked."
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Mario's face
and the Salvator Mundi's face, you know,
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they kind of shift back and forth
in my mind.
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One evening, I am wrestling
for the tenth time
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with retouching a small loss,
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which is just above the lip, right here.
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And there is a transition in this area
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from the lip to the upper lip
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that is imperceptible.
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There is no line there,
for the edge of the lip
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is exactly what is present
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in the same area of the Mona Lisa.
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My hands are shaking.
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No one except Leonardo
could have painted this picture.
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I leave the building
and call Robert and say,
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"The painting is by Leonardo."
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I think at that point...
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"What can we do?
What is there to do with this picture?"
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There are only,
by most people's count,
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about 15 Leonardos known.
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And to say,
"I have found a picture like this,"
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is, in our circles, akin to saying,
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"I had a spaceship on my lawn last night
and I saw some unicorns."
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It's just so far-fetched.
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Don't even try to convince yourself
that it's right
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because you're just gonna
look like a fool.
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"The most famous artist
of the High Renaissance."
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Those paintings are heavily documented.
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And all of a sudden, we have this one.
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It disappears for hundreds of years.
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And then it turns up in America?
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In New Orleans?
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I see.
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Here's the lost Leonardo that somebody
once mentioned in a book.
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When you go back to Old Masters,
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the provenance is very important
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because that line of ownership
tells its story.
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Where did this object come from
and in what context
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did it land in the moment
it's in right now?
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So, you know, Robert spent
a lot of time going through archives
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and starting to piece together
a provenance,
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because any picture, if it doesn't
have a provenance, there's doubt.
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There's reasons for people
not to believe what it is.
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I was able to trace the painting's
whereabouts to the year 1900,
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when it was sold at a London auction
as attributed to Luini.
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But then the trail went cold.
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I looked through old British inventories
from the 17th century
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and I found two possible citations
in the collection of Charles I.
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And my colleague Margaret Dalivalle
found one in the collection of Charles II.
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Our painting does not have
the royal brand on its reverse,
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as the panel has been
thinned and rebacked.
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It seems possible, but not provable,
that this is the same painting.
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But still today, we don't know exactly
which one it might be.
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Particularly in the Old Masters' space,
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opinions matter more
than facts at any one time.
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And you always start
with the two or three
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who are most willing
to potentially listen to you
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that this could be
by the hand of the master.
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When you're a museum curator,
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you quite often get sent images
by e-mail,
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transparencies,
whatever they might be,
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of pictures that people hope might be
lost or forgotten masterpieces.
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And I have to say that for the most part,
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they are, to put it politely,
somewhat disappointing.
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So when I was sent a transparency
of the Salvator Mundi,
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I was, I have to say, somewhat skeptical
about what one would see.
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And I looked at it and I thought,
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"Gosh, this feels powerful."
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And I felt it needed
to be seen in the flesh.
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So he suggested that he would invite
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the leading scholars on Leonardo
to see the painting
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in kind of the neutral territory
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of the painting conservation lab
at the National Gallery.
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What I was hoping to do in gathering
the scholars at the National Gallery
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was to look carefully at the picture
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and how it spoke to that group of people.
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00:17:38,308 --> 00:17:39,434
I'm Martin Kemp,
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00:17:39,518 --> 00:17:42,980
emeritus professor of the History of Art,
University of Oxford.
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00:17:45,524 --> 00:17:49,236
The Salvator Mundi came out of the blue
literally as a surprise,
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because there's been no authentic
Leonardo painting for over 100 years.
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So you don't sit there waiting
for one to come along.
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00:17:59,413 --> 00:18:04,585
We knew that Leonardo had been involved
with the subject of the Salvator Mundi.
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00:18:04,668 --> 00:18:06,879
We also have two drawings at Windsor,
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00:18:06,962 --> 00:18:09,756
very beautiful red chalk drawings
for draperies,
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00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:11,925
one for the chest
with the gathered drapery,
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00:18:12,009 --> 00:18:14,761
and the other for the arm and sleeve.
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00:18:14,845 --> 00:18:17,556
So we know he was involved
in planning that.
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00:18:21,185 --> 00:18:25,189
There are quite a lot of copies.
I think we're now up to plus 20.
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00:18:28,692 --> 00:18:32,029
But I thought that if Leonardo
had painted an original,
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00:18:32,112 --> 00:18:34,781
the chance of it turning up
was very small.
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00:18:36,116 --> 00:18:38,327
A Leonardo
can be several different things.
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00:18:38,410 --> 00:18:41,663
There's works that are fully accepted
from the hand of the master
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00:18:41,747 --> 00:18:44,750
and you will see them labeled by Leonardo.
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00:18:47,461 --> 00:18:50,005
But there are also workshop of Leonardo.
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00:18:51,131 --> 00:18:54,218
He was guiding perhaps
a student on the work,
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00:18:54,301 --> 00:18:56,845
but there's not firm agreement
that the entire work
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00:18:56,929 --> 00:18:58,889
is from the hand of the author.
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00:19:01,141 --> 00:19:03,101
You have circle of Leonardo's,
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00:19:03,185 --> 00:19:07,523
followers that did work
in their style and in their manner.
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00:19:08,190 --> 00:19:11,026
And then finally,
follower of Leonardo,
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00:19:11,109 --> 00:19:14,738
who is doing his picture
in the artist's style.
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00:19:17,950 --> 00:19:22,037
If this picture was the follower
of a follower of da Vinci,
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it would be worth
what Mr. Simon paid for it, $1100.
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00:19:27,501 --> 00:19:30,754
If it was a student of,
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00:19:31,255 --> 00:19:35,884
say he was working under da Vinci
at the time, like Boltraffio was,
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it would be exponentially
more valuable than that.
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00:19:40,013 --> 00:19:42,683
And if it was by the hand of the master,
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00:19:42,766 --> 00:19:45,394
then it would be, not exponentially,
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00:19:45,477 --> 00:19:49,231
but exponentially
upon exponentially more valuable.
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00:19:49,314 --> 00:19:51,733
The curve is rather absurd.
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00:19:53,527 --> 00:19:58,198
We had already begun
to plan the Leonardo exhibition,
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00:19:58,282 --> 00:20:01,577
which had some major loans
already agreed.
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00:20:04,621 --> 00:20:06,915
The issue was how
to take this picture to London.
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00:20:06,999 --> 00:20:11,128
It was unframed and a special
box was built for it,
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00:20:11,211 --> 00:20:14,798
and it was small enough
so that it could be hand-carried
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00:20:14,882 --> 00:20:17,843
and go through the x-ray machine.
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00:20:30,814 --> 00:20:33,358
The next day,
I go to the National Gallery
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where it awaits the arrival
of the invited scholars.
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00:20:40,616 --> 00:20:45,412
You're dealing with the ego
and dreams of academics.
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Every academic wants to make a discovery.
245
00:20:50,459 --> 00:20:56,798
I'm trying, when I'm going to London,
not to set up expectations.
246
00:20:56,882 --> 00:20:58,509
Expectations are dangerous
247
00:20:58,592 --> 00:21:00,844
because you end up
seeing what you want to see.
248
00:21:04,556 --> 00:21:07,017
I decided to play it as cool as I could,
249
00:21:07,100 --> 00:21:12,523
and looked at it,
and clearly, it's got a presence.
250
00:21:12,606 --> 00:21:14,983
Leonardos have a strange presence.
251
00:21:15,067 --> 00:21:18,904
They are very assertive,
but at the same time very ambiguous.
252
00:21:19,988 --> 00:21:22,616
And Leonardo does that.
Other people can't.
253
00:21:26,411 --> 00:21:28,205
I'm Maria Teresa Fiorio.
254
00:21:28,288 --> 00:21:33,168
I worked in the museums
of the city of Milano.
255
00:21:35,254 --> 00:21:39,633
The first time I saw the Salvator Mundi
was in London.
256
00:21:46,890 --> 00:21:51,687
I was particularly shocked
by the lower part of the painting.
257
00:21:51,770 --> 00:21:53,730
Because it's the part
that is best conserved.
258
00:21:53,814 --> 00:21:58,360
So my impression
was that it could be a Leonardo.
259
00:21:59,611 --> 00:22:04,449
But it is difficult to judge a painting
in a conservation state
260
00:22:04,533 --> 00:22:06,451
that was so...
261
00:22:07,536 --> 00:22:11,540
So damaged, to be honest.
262
00:22:12,833 --> 00:22:16,837
I always have a magnifying glass with me,
which may seem pretentious,
263
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,090
but it actually serves me well
in these circumstances.
264
00:22:20,174 --> 00:22:23,886
It means I can shut up
and just get on with looking at something,
265
00:22:23,969 --> 00:22:28,599
rather than having to ramble on about it.
266
00:22:28,682 --> 00:22:31,852
So there's an amazing moment.
267
00:22:39,151 --> 00:22:43,405
I didn't really get any answer,
I didn't get any direct answer from them.
268
00:22:43,488 --> 00:22:47,284
They were-- I also knew not to insist.
269
00:22:48,035 --> 00:22:50,662
So did you get to talk
to all of the scholars
270
00:22:50,746 --> 00:22:54,208
and did you ask them directly,
"Is it Leonardo?"
271
00:22:54,958 --> 00:22:59,880
I sometimes think that it's better
to hear opinions over...
272
00:23:00,506 --> 00:23:02,216
the course of a conversation.
273
00:23:02,299 --> 00:23:05,802
So there was certainly
no moment where we voted,
274
00:23:05,886 --> 00:23:09,848
or where I put this question
to people directly.
275
00:23:09,932 --> 00:23:13,560
It was much more a kind of sense
of what their response was.
276
00:23:15,145 --> 00:23:18,857
To me at least, the response
in the room felt very positive.
277
00:23:18,941 --> 00:23:23,946
It felt as if there'd been...
That discovery was confirmed in a way,
278
00:23:24,029 --> 00:23:30,285
and that this group of scholars
was as excited as I had been.
279
00:23:30,369 --> 00:23:35,249
Nobody asked me a formal opinion
about this painting.
280
00:23:35,332 --> 00:23:41,213
It was just... I shouldn't say a chat,
but something like that.
281
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:44,758
So the scholars were just brought in
for an afternoon to look at it?
282
00:23:44,842 --> 00:23:45,801
Brought in, yes.
283
00:23:45,884 --> 00:23:47,845
They looked at it and said,
"Looks good to me"?
284
00:23:47,928 --> 00:23:52,432
Well, they were open
to the fact that it was a da Vinci.
285
00:23:53,642 --> 00:23:56,812
They named the scholars and said,
"These people authenticated the painting"?
286
00:23:56,895 --> 00:23:58,397
-Yes.
-Oh, God.
287
00:24:03,402 --> 00:24:05,863
There is a suspicious aspect to it,
288
00:24:05,946 --> 00:24:10,075
in that the provenance
of the painting is very murky.
289
00:24:10,158 --> 00:24:12,786
It's ghostlike, from where it came from.
290
00:24:12,870 --> 00:24:14,538
So there's a question there.
291
00:24:17,958 --> 00:24:20,169
Maybe it was a week
or week and a half later,
292
00:24:20,252 --> 00:24:23,964
the National Gallery called me
to tell me that basically
293
00:24:24,047 --> 00:24:28,802
everyone had agreed
that the picture was indeed by Leonardo.
294
00:24:34,183 --> 00:24:37,561
This was the moment we had to say,
295
00:24:37,644 --> 00:24:40,856
not only to each other, but to ourselves,
296
00:24:41,648 --> 00:24:44,860
"This is real. This really is real.
297
00:24:45,485 --> 00:24:50,908
This is a da Vinci
and we're currently the owners of it."
298
00:24:54,703 --> 00:24:58,332
How long would you queue
to see an exhibition?
299
00:24:59,458 --> 00:25:02,878
These da Vinci fans
stood in the cold for hours.
300
00:25:04,087 --> 00:25:07,132
It's like watching your child
go out into the world
301
00:25:07,216 --> 00:25:10,219
and just hoping that they don't fall down,
scrape their knee,
302
00:25:10,302 --> 00:25:12,012
that nobody hurts their feelings.
303
00:25:12,095 --> 00:25:16,266
This is Leonardo's
rediscovered Salvator Mundi
304
00:25:16,350 --> 00:25:20,521
that has astonishingly turned up
in the United States of America.
305
00:25:21,980 --> 00:25:26,151
It sort of seduces your soul.
It's calming just to be near it.
306
00:25:26,235 --> 00:25:30,489
Finding a Leonardo is not something
that you can do every day.
307
00:25:35,452 --> 00:25:38,121
So they presented it as a Leonardo.
308
00:25:38,205 --> 00:25:39,456
As Leonardo. Yes.
309
00:25:39,540 --> 00:25:42,626
Okay, so that was their own decision.
310
00:25:42,709 --> 00:25:44,753
-Yes.
-Okay, so...
311
00:25:44,837 --> 00:25:49,424
We found it as a Leonardo
in the exhibition.
312
00:25:50,342 --> 00:25:55,389
Before the exhibition,
the National Gallery makes a press release
313
00:25:55,472 --> 00:26:00,102
where it's described as a sort of test,
but when the exhibition opens,
314
00:26:00,185 --> 00:26:04,064
the painting is labeled
as a full-autographed Leonardo.
315
00:26:04,147 --> 00:26:05,190
Why this difference?
316
00:26:06,692 --> 00:26:09,820
So putting "attributed to,"
317
00:26:09,903 --> 00:26:14,241
or "ascribed to,"
or "possibly by," or one of these phrases,
318
00:26:14,324 --> 00:26:17,703
would, I think,
have been to distort my own view,
319
00:26:17,786 --> 00:26:20,372
and to really,
320
00:26:20,455 --> 00:26:23,792
in a way, confuse the issue still further
321
00:26:23,876 --> 00:26:29,548
that this was the lost picture
by Leonardo of the Salvator Mundi.
322
00:26:30,841 --> 00:26:33,218
I felt the National Gallery
was in a good place
323
00:26:33,302 --> 00:26:35,512
to put this picture on view,
324
00:26:35,596 --> 00:26:38,682
and I have to say, had I felt
anything differently at that point,
325
00:26:38,765 --> 00:26:40,642
we would have made
a very different decision.
326
00:26:44,855 --> 00:26:48,192
My name is Frank Zöllner.
I'm working on Renaissance art,
327
00:26:48,275 --> 00:26:50,485
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo.
328
00:26:51,528 --> 00:26:54,656
I saw the Salvator
in the exhibition in London,
329
00:26:54,740 --> 00:26:57,993
and my first impression basically said,
330
00:26:58,076 --> 00:27:00,537
"Okay, this is an interesting painting,
331
00:27:00,621 --> 00:27:04,333
but there's something very strange."
332
00:27:05,167 --> 00:27:08,170
For example, the curls
are sort of very schematic
333
00:27:08,253 --> 00:27:14,218
and the blessing hand, the flesh tones,
looks like a pupil to me.
334
00:27:14,301 --> 00:27:19,097
And then you have this overall aura,
the overall light.
335
00:27:20,516 --> 00:27:23,810
It's something which is very, very good.
336
00:27:23,894 --> 00:27:27,940
But this is exactly the part
which has been restored.
337
00:27:28,023 --> 00:27:30,567
So this is a quite paradoxical situation.
338
00:27:30,651 --> 00:27:34,029
You have the old parts
of the painting which are original.
339
00:27:34,112 --> 00:27:35,614
These are by pupils.
340
00:27:35,697 --> 00:27:39,076
And you have the new part of the painting,
which look like Leonardo,
341
00:27:39,159 --> 00:27:41,036
but they are by the restorer.
342
00:27:42,746 --> 00:27:47,417
In some part, it's a masterpiece
by Dianne Modestini.
343
00:27:47,501 --> 00:27:51,797
But that's ridiculous
because I can't paint like Leonardo.
344
00:27:53,423 --> 00:27:55,717
I mean, it's very flattering,
but it's absurd.
345
00:27:55,801 --> 00:27:59,638
I think she has done a great job on it
as a painter.
346
00:27:59,721 --> 00:28:03,767
But one can ask
if she maybe has overdone it a bit.
347
00:28:03,851 --> 00:28:08,063
I think it's more Leonardesque
than Leonardo had done it.
348
00:28:14,194 --> 00:28:16,113
Well, to me, the work is not by Leonardo
349
00:28:16,196 --> 00:28:19,491
because I don't recognize his technique.
350
00:28:19,575 --> 00:28:22,578
What struck me first was the hand.
351
00:28:22,661 --> 00:28:27,124
Because the lifted fingers
were absolutely wrong
352
00:28:27,207 --> 00:28:30,043
because, notably this one,
353
00:28:30,127 --> 00:28:35,174
because it seems to rotate over itself,
which, of course, is impossible.
354
00:28:36,466 --> 00:28:40,679
He studied human anatomy extensively.
355
00:28:42,306 --> 00:28:44,099
Imagining that...
356
00:28:45,309 --> 00:28:48,729
such a work led him
to paint wrong hands...
357
00:28:49,605 --> 00:28:52,816
can't be thought about. It's unthinkable.
358
00:28:55,986 --> 00:28:59,781
We need a little distance
to judge this painting.
359
00:28:59,865 --> 00:29:05,370
Attribution issues are not decided
in one or in ten years.
360
00:29:05,454 --> 00:29:09,208
They are decided in ten,
in 20, in 30 years.
361
00:29:09,291 --> 00:29:14,922
And it may turn out
that in 50 years' time, people say,
362
00:29:15,005 --> 00:29:17,341
"Okay, how could these idiots
363
00:29:17,424 --> 00:29:22,513
at the early 21st century
see this as a Leonardo painting?"
364
00:29:27,017 --> 00:29:30,270
There's been a lot of noise and so on.
365
00:29:30,354 --> 00:29:32,898
How has it been for you
to be through that?
366
00:29:34,066 --> 00:29:35,150
Fine.
367
00:29:39,655 --> 00:29:45,494
What do you feel is at stake for you,
personally, in this case?
368
00:29:45,577 --> 00:29:47,371
-Nothing.
-No?
369
00:29:48,413 --> 00:29:50,040
You're not gonna get anywhere. Sorry.
370
00:29:50,123 --> 00:29:53,043
-Okay.
-That's a fair answer, I think.
371
00:30:07,432 --> 00:30:09,268
You could say I'm a maximalist.
372
00:30:09,977 --> 00:30:14,565
There's not much wall space left,
but there's always somewhere else.
373
00:30:14,648 --> 00:30:16,483
I haven't used the ceiling yet.
374
00:30:17,484 --> 00:30:20,153
Everyone in this country now,
and I guess the world,
375
00:30:20,237 --> 00:30:23,073
talks about fake news,
and all lies and politics,
376
00:30:23,156 --> 00:30:26,368
and all of the hypocrisy that you see.
377
00:30:26,451 --> 00:30:31,331
But the thing is, what scares people
the most, in my business, is the truth.
378
00:30:32,541 --> 00:30:35,752
What's the reason that the National Museum
would show this painting?
379
00:30:35,836 --> 00:30:39,882
Simple. Unfortunately,
it's to boost the visitors.
380
00:30:39,965 --> 00:30:41,967
They have no right to exhibit a painting
381
00:30:42,050 --> 00:30:45,929
that hasn't been 150% scrutinized
382
00:30:46,013 --> 00:30:51,185
and vetted
that it is what it purports to be.
383
00:30:51,268 --> 00:30:53,187
And in this case,
that painting was nowhere
384
00:30:53,270 --> 00:30:55,939
near that stage of authentication
385
00:30:56,023 --> 00:30:58,734
where it would be warranted
to be exhibited
386
00:30:58,817 --> 00:31:01,361
in such a tremendously reputable
387
00:31:01,445 --> 00:31:03,697
and influential museum.
It's just not right.
388
00:31:05,991 --> 00:31:08,160
I mean, whenever
there's a lot of money involved,
389
00:31:08,243 --> 00:31:09,870
the world becomes a bunch of worms
390
00:31:09,953 --> 00:31:12,080
intertwined when you pick up a rock.
391
00:31:12,164 --> 00:31:15,417
There was no doubt in anyone's mind
where this painting
392
00:31:15,501 --> 00:31:18,462
was ultimately going to end up,
which was for sale.
393
00:31:25,677 --> 00:31:29,431
Well, I'm Warren Adelson,
and I've been an art dealer
394
00:31:29,515 --> 00:31:31,433
for most of my adult life.
395
00:31:31,517 --> 00:31:35,312
My first encounter
was at a lunch with Bob Simon,
396
00:31:35,395 --> 00:31:38,857
and he was grinning and he was grinning.
397
00:31:38,941 --> 00:31:42,027
And I said, "What's with you?
What's going on with you?"
398
00:31:42,110 --> 00:31:44,363
He said, "I've got to tell you,
nobody knows this,
399
00:31:44,446 --> 00:31:48,742
but we just had this picture by Leonardo
400
00:31:48,825 --> 00:31:52,955
in London at the National Gallery,
and it's been authenticated."
401
00:31:53,497 --> 00:31:56,542
And I said,
"Wow, can I see an image of it?"
402
00:31:57,084 --> 00:32:00,087
And he showed me a photograph of it.
403
00:32:00,170 --> 00:32:02,089
And I thought it was incredible.
404
00:32:02,172 --> 00:32:05,592
I said, "You know, maybe
there's some role for me here.
405
00:32:05,676 --> 00:32:10,389
I have a history, as you know,
of selling expensive pictures."
406
00:32:11,014 --> 00:32:13,725
So Warren became our third partner.
407
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:19,982
When you had to figure out the price,
how did you come about that?
408
00:32:20,065 --> 00:32:22,734
I came up--
Certainly, we came up with an idea
409
00:32:22,818 --> 00:32:25,529
that it was worth in excess
of $200 million.
410
00:32:26,738 --> 00:32:30,242
You know, the desire was not
to put it on the market, essentially.
411
00:32:30,325 --> 00:32:35,497
The desire was for it
to be acquired by a museum.
412
00:32:37,875 --> 00:32:43,505
I made an attempt
to sell the painting to museums.
413
00:32:43,589 --> 00:32:46,925
I'm from Boston.
I went to the Boston Museum.
414
00:32:47,009 --> 00:32:49,887
I was close to the Houston Museum
415
00:32:49,970 --> 00:32:52,264
through my great friend Meredith Long.
416
00:32:52,347 --> 00:32:54,308
I tried the Dallas Museum
417
00:32:54,391 --> 00:32:56,560
and the painting was there for nine months
418
00:32:56,643 --> 00:32:59,021
and they tried to raise the money.
419
00:32:59,104 --> 00:33:00,981
So why didn't they buy it?
420
00:33:01,857 --> 00:33:04,443
It was completely an issue of...
421
00:33:05,444 --> 00:33:08,655
inability to raise the sufficient funds
to acquire it.
422
00:33:18,916 --> 00:33:21,627
My name is Bernd Lindemann.
423
00:33:21,710 --> 00:33:25,631
I was the director
of the Gemäldegalerie here in Berlin.
424
00:33:26,673 --> 00:33:30,677
One day I got a telephone call.
It was a dealer,
425
00:33:30,761 --> 00:33:34,723
and he said he has something
which could be interesting
426
00:33:34,806 --> 00:33:37,518
for the Gemäldegalerie.
Well, and that was the painting.
427
00:33:44,358 --> 00:33:47,528
Most of the painting is a remake,
428
00:33:47,611 --> 00:33:50,531
and this was, for me, the argument to say,
429
00:33:50,614 --> 00:33:54,493
"No, this is not a painting
for the Gemäldegalerie."
430
00:33:56,245 --> 00:33:58,914
I was surprised to see the painting
431
00:33:58,997 --> 00:34:02,584
in the exhibition
at the National Gallery in London.
432
00:34:02,668 --> 00:34:04,586
It is a problematic painting,
433
00:34:04,670 --> 00:34:09,675
and I think it's not the role
of serious museums
434
00:34:10,300 --> 00:34:15,138
to present a painting
which is so heavily discussed.
435
00:34:18,725 --> 00:34:22,521
It was very frustrating.
It was a very frustrating thing.
436
00:34:22,603 --> 00:34:26,275
I felt I had the rarest painting
in the world
437
00:34:27,025 --> 00:34:29,652
by the greatest artist in the world,
438
00:34:29,735 --> 00:34:31,196
and I couldn't sell it.
439
00:34:35,449 --> 00:34:39,161
There were so many issues
that are like red flags popping up.
440
00:34:41,164 --> 00:34:42,666
Da Vinci paints on wood.
441
00:34:42,748 --> 00:34:45,918
When he's making these paintings,
he's such a perfectionist.
442
00:34:46,003 --> 00:34:49,047
He's not gonna paint it
on a piece of shit wood
443
00:34:49,130 --> 00:34:50,757
with a big knot right in the middle,
444
00:34:50,841 --> 00:34:54,344
which inherently
makes the painting unstable.
445
00:34:54,428 --> 00:34:56,429
It's just not the way he operates.
446
00:34:57,097 --> 00:35:00,058
I mean, the joke circulating
around the contemporary art world
447
00:35:00,142 --> 00:35:03,020
was that the painting was a contemporary
painting because 90% of it
448
00:35:03,103 --> 00:35:07,482
was painted within the last ten years,
during the restoration process.
449
00:35:15,574 --> 00:35:19,786
Mario and I had a house southeast
of Florence that we restored together.
450
00:35:19,870 --> 00:35:21,496
It's bittersweet
451
00:35:21,580 --> 00:35:23,248
because there are
so many memories there
452
00:35:23,332 --> 00:35:24,708
and so many ties.
453
00:35:29,796 --> 00:35:35,010
Mario used to like to use these little,
you know, small boards to paint on.
454
00:35:35,093 --> 00:35:39,014
Oh, that's one of his.
That's a little picture that he painted.
455
00:35:39,097 --> 00:35:40,224
I think.
456
00:35:40,307 --> 00:35:43,435
I think that's Mario.
Maybe it's me. I'm not sure.
457
00:35:43,519 --> 00:35:44,394
Well, yeah.
458
00:35:44,478 --> 00:35:46,855
I had never really painted when I met him.
459
00:35:46,939 --> 00:35:48,482
So he was...
460
00:35:49,608 --> 00:35:51,860
Yeah, so he began teaching me to draw,
461
00:35:51,944 --> 00:35:53,654
and to paint, and to draw from these...
462
00:35:57,616 --> 00:36:00,285
I know there are rumors
that I was part owner of the picture,
463
00:36:00,369 --> 00:36:02,120
but that's completely untrue.
464
00:36:02,663 --> 00:36:06,291
People may think that
because my husband was...
465
00:36:06,375 --> 00:36:10,087
He absolutely did own shares
in pictures all the time,
466
00:36:10,170 --> 00:36:12,422
because Mario was also a dealer.
467
00:36:16,260 --> 00:36:17,845
He worked with the best dealers.
468
00:36:17,928 --> 00:36:19,721
That's why I have money,
pictures, things.
469
00:36:19,805 --> 00:36:23,267
No, Mario bought pictures
and shares with dealers,
470
00:36:23,350 --> 00:36:25,561
but he was such a great connoisseur,
471
00:36:25,644 --> 00:36:29,356
apart from being a restorer,
that he was so valuable to them,
472
00:36:29,439 --> 00:36:31,608
but it was with the top of the top.
473
00:36:35,404 --> 00:36:36,738
But I'm not a dealer.
474
00:36:37,531 --> 00:36:41,368
Art dealers, the whole art world
is very tricky and, you know...
475
00:36:42,411 --> 00:36:43,662
You know? And it's...
476
00:36:44,746 --> 00:36:46,039
And I'm not--
477
00:36:46,123 --> 00:36:50,419
I'm not that kind of tricky person.
So I don't--
478
00:36:50,502 --> 00:36:53,672
I would never get into that. Never.
479
00:36:54,256 --> 00:36:56,466
And I certainly didn't have anything
to do with this.
480
00:36:59,136 --> 00:37:02,681
And why do you say
it was more than just a restoration?
481
00:37:02,764 --> 00:37:05,726
I was also involved with the whole process
482
00:37:05,809 --> 00:37:07,477
of attributing the painting
483
00:37:07,561 --> 00:37:09,688
and being a spokesman for the picture,
484
00:37:09,771 --> 00:37:12,065
which I did
because I absolutely believe in it.
485
00:37:14,443 --> 00:37:16,111
I said to Robert one day,
486
00:37:16,195 --> 00:37:19,823
"I don't know how to charge you for this.
It's more than just a restoration."
487
00:37:19,907 --> 00:37:21,533
He said, "When we sell it,"
488
00:37:21,617 --> 00:37:23,368
he said, you know...
489
00:37:24,161 --> 00:37:27,497
"I'll give you what, you know,
I believe you deserve."
490
00:37:30,584 --> 00:37:32,878
So it was not like a fixed percentage?
491
00:37:32,961 --> 00:37:34,171
It was never fixed.
492
00:37:34,838 --> 00:37:38,133
He paid me generously, but yeah.
493
00:37:45,974 --> 00:37:50,521
Geneva, historically,
is a place you go to disappear.
494
00:37:52,022 --> 00:37:56,735
This is a place where nations
negotiate peace treaties.
495
00:37:56,818 --> 00:38:00,697
This is a place where diplomats
and intelligence agents go
496
00:38:00,781 --> 00:38:02,574
to have a neutral territory.
497
00:38:02,658 --> 00:38:04,117
And this is also a place
498
00:38:04,201 --> 00:38:08,288
where businessmen
are able to run sensitive operations
499
00:38:08,372 --> 00:38:12,668
in a very low-voltage, safe environment.
500
00:38:14,628 --> 00:38:18,882
So the painting is sold to Yves Bouvier.
501
00:38:24,763 --> 00:38:29,142
I'm not scared. It's actually
the concentration that makes it work.
502
00:38:30,561 --> 00:38:32,396
I like speed.
503
00:38:34,982 --> 00:38:38,485
But I never dreamt of going to the moon
or becoming an art dealer.
504
00:38:38,569 --> 00:38:40,445
I did not have this kind of...
505
00:38:41,321 --> 00:38:42,322
dream.
506
00:38:49,204 --> 00:38:52,666
There are many versions
of Yves Bouvier.
507
00:38:53,375 --> 00:38:57,796
And the more I have gotten to know him,
508
00:38:57,880 --> 00:38:59,756
the less I think I know him.
509
00:39:02,801 --> 00:39:06,471
The Bouvier Affair was a bit
the elephant in the room
510
00:39:06,555 --> 00:39:08,932
for investigative journalists
in Switzerland.
511
00:39:09,016 --> 00:39:12,019
And we were able
512
00:39:12,102 --> 00:39:16,064
to get access
to a lot of court documents,
513
00:39:16,148 --> 00:39:21,403
and that enabled us to build a narrative,
514
00:39:21,486 --> 00:39:25,949
a storyline that was as close
to the truth as we could have.
515
00:39:33,373 --> 00:39:37,669
Yves Bouvier is a quiet guy
516
00:39:37,753 --> 00:39:39,755
who, I think, at the time,
517
00:39:39,838 --> 00:39:42,758
you probably would not have said
is a major player
518
00:39:42,841 --> 00:39:46,762
in the art world,
but he played a major role.
519
00:39:48,138 --> 00:39:51,558
He meets a Russian transplant
520
00:39:51,642 --> 00:39:55,812
who really exiles himself in Geneva,
521
00:39:55,896 --> 00:39:58,982
Mr. Dmitry Rybolovlev.
522
00:40:03,904 --> 00:40:08,200
He was only interested
in exceptional artists and masterpieces.
523
00:40:08,283 --> 00:40:13,288
His rule and choice was,
"I want the 'top ones'."
524
00:40:17,584 --> 00:40:21,463
He told me that he saw
a photo of the painting.
525
00:40:21,547 --> 00:40:24,842
And that he liked it and wanted to buy it.
526
00:40:26,009 --> 00:40:28,720
I started to investigate the painting.
527
00:40:28,804 --> 00:40:30,222
Nobody wanted it.
528
00:40:33,767 --> 00:40:34,726
So I told him...
529
00:40:34,810 --> 00:40:36,436
Dear Dmitry,
530
00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:38,188
..."Don't buy this painting.
531
00:40:39,189 --> 00:40:41,567
It will never be a good investment."
532
00:40:42,192 --> 00:40:43,777
There are major issues.
533
00:40:43,861 --> 00:40:47,072
The restoration took many years.
534
00:40:47,155 --> 00:40:51,034
It has been restored for 5 years,
that's a really long time.
535
00:40:51,118 --> 00:40:54,955
There was the issue that Ms. Modestini
had financial interest in the sale.
536
00:40:55,038 --> 00:40:57,249
The face was almost nonexistent.
537
00:40:57,332 --> 00:41:01,712
The actual original part of the painting
was very small.
538
00:41:01,795 --> 00:41:03,297
The price $200 million.
539
00:41:03,380 --> 00:41:06,258
The fact that the price was too high
540
00:41:06,341 --> 00:41:08,552
would make him
the laughing stock of the art market.
541
00:41:10,053 --> 00:41:11,221
Best regards, Yves Bouvier.
542
00:41:11,305 --> 00:41:13,348
I wasn't comfortable with this painting.
543
00:41:13,891 --> 00:41:16,351
It's like selling a car
that has been in an accident.
544
00:41:17,144 --> 00:41:18,520
But you were selling it anyway?
545
00:41:19,021 --> 00:41:21,982
If the client really wants it
and was warned about everything.
546
00:41:23,233 --> 00:41:28,113
In the end I said, "If you really want it,
I'll get it for you."
547
00:41:28,197 --> 00:41:31,074
I asked Sotheby's to find the painting
548
00:41:31,158 --> 00:41:36,288
so we could sign a contract
with the owners of the painting
549
00:41:36,371 --> 00:41:38,081
allowing me to buy it and sell it later.
550
00:41:39,249 --> 00:41:43,086
We were contacted by Sotheby's...
551
00:41:44,588 --> 00:41:47,174
about a client they had.
552
00:41:47,674 --> 00:41:51,595
I had a meeting with Mr. Rybolovlev
in his new apartment
553
00:41:51,678 --> 00:41:55,641
in one of the most prestigious buildings
near Central Park.
554
00:41:55,724 --> 00:41:57,559
He wanted to talk about
the Salvator Mundi.
555
00:41:58,977 --> 00:42:02,356
Sotheby's brings the painting over.
556
00:42:11,532 --> 00:42:15,619
I surprise him, I open the black case
and take the painting out.
557
00:42:15,702 --> 00:42:19,831
I put it on a chair and ask him,
"Is this the painting you want?"
558
00:42:24,753 --> 00:42:28,257
He is hypnotized by this painting
that he loves so much.
559
00:42:36,056 --> 00:42:40,769
I ask him, "Do you want to buy it
for 120 million?" He says, "Yes."
560
00:42:43,230 --> 00:42:46,942
All I had left for me to do
was to finalize my purchase.
561
00:42:48,652 --> 00:42:53,365
Together with Sotheby's, we invite
the owners of the painting to Paris.
562
00:42:54,575 --> 00:42:56,994
And to lead the negotiation,
563
00:42:57,077 --> 00:43:01,123
I hire a friend of mine
who is a former poker player.
564
00:43:01,623 --> 00:43:07,212
Why? Because a poker player knows
how to read the opponent.
565
00:43:07,296 --> 00:43:12,634
He knows how to negotiate
and when to push or stop.
566
00:43:16,722 --> 00:43:19,766
Part of the agreement in the sale
567
00:43:19,850 --> 00:43:25,439
was that I'm not supposed
to talk about the trip to Paris.
568
00:43:25,522 --> 00:43:30,861
We knew that the painting was up for sale
and that no one wanted to buy it.
569
00:43:31,612 --> 00:43:36,617
When a dealer comes all the way to Paris
to spend a romantic weekend with his wife,
570
00:43:36,700 --> 00:43:39,161
he is dead if he does not make a deal.
571
00:43:39,828 --> 00:43:43,373
He negotiated the price at $83 million.
572
00:43:44,416 --> 00:43:48,587
I can say that I was glad
that it was finally over.
573
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:54,885
It was a very trying
and difficult situation.
574
00:43:55,469 --> 00:43:58,013
And I'm really glad I got back,
575
00:43:58,096 --> 00:44:02,434
and the best thing I could say
about it was that it was over.
576
00:44:02,518 --> 00:44:06,188
We were paid the next day.
And from that point of view,
577
00:44:06,271 --> 00:44:08,315
it was cleaned up.
578
00:44:08,398 --> 00:44:09,274
Cleaned up.
579
00:44:11,235 --> 00:44:15,239
I think they were very happy that someone
bought the painting at this price.
580
00:44:17,199 --> 00:44:21,620
You are always the buyer or seller
for someone, and they were professionals.
581
00:44:21,703 --> 00:44:26,041
They couldn't have regretted
selling the painting.
582
00:44:28,085 --> 00:44:33,924
The same evening,
I sold the painting to Mr. Rybolovlev
583
00:44:34,007 --> 00:44:38,011
through his financial advisor,
Mr. Sazonov.
584
00:44:38,762 --> 00:44:42,474
Yves Bouvier is trying
to convince Mike Sazonov.
585
00:44:43,308 --> 00:44:49,273
Bouvier: "Hello, Mike.
The first price I got was $150 million.
586
00:44:49,356 --> 00:44:53,944
I don't want to get the price wrong
and I need more time and info.
587
00:44:54,027 --> 00:44:55,654
Regards, Yves."
588
00:44:55,737 --> 00:44:59,116
What he omits to say
is that he already bought it.
589
00:44:59,199 --> 00:45:05,414
The e-mail negotiation later on
was in fact...
590
00:45:05,914 --> 00:45:08,876
just a business game.
591
00:45:09,835 --> 00:45:14,047
Yves: "Ninety is not an option.
They don't want to lower the price.
592
00:45:14,131 --> 00:45:17,509
I got a 10% discount
if we pay immediately, $135 million.
593
00:45:17,593 --> 00:45:21,013
We must close the deal tonight
or we might lose it.
594
00:45:21,096 --> 00:45:23,682
Other top collectors are interested.
595
00:45:23,765 --> 00:45:27,311
It must be an important private museum.
596
00:45:29,188 --> 00:45:32,107
We need to get Rybolovlev
to increase the offer."
597
00:45:35,402 --> 00:45:38,822
Sazonov: "You can go up to $135 million.
598
00:45:38,906 --> 00:45:41,408
But try to push it down. How about 120?"
599
00:45:41,491 --> 00:45:45,662
Yves: "It's a tough negotiation, but
I'm fighting and taking the time I need.
600
00:45:46,580 --> 00:45:48,332
I'm now offering 120."
601
00:45:48,415 --> 00:45:50,417
Sazonov: "So you continue?"
602
00:45:50,501 --> 00:45:53,629
Yves: "Yes, but I offered 125."
603
00:45:54,296 --> 00:45:56,924
Sazonov: "Are we good?"
604
00:45:57,007 --> 00:46:01,470
Yves Bouvier:
"Done at 127.5. Terribly difficult.
605
00:46:01,553 --> 00:46:06,058
But it's a very good deal
for this masterpiece by Leonardo. Yves."
606
00:46:09,436 --> 00:46:15,400
That was the whole negotiation,
and all of it is fake.
607
00:46:15,484 --> 00:46:18,362
I was nice
because he was ready to pay $130 million.
608
00:46:18,445 --> 00:46:23,909
I gave him a discount at $127.5 million,
if he would pay soon.
609
00:46:31,250 --> 00:46:35,504
Bouvier has made this
really quite extraordinary markup
610
00:46:35,587 --> 00:46:39,424
of $47.5 million
on a transaction
611
00:46:39,508 --> 00:46:41,218
that took him less than two days.
612
00:46:42,427 --> 00:46:46,723
It's extraordinary and quite frankly,
pretty unheard of in the art world.
613
00:46:49,101 --> 00:46:51,311
That is the new part.
614
00:46:51,395 --> 00:46:52,980
New part of the free port.
615
00:46:56,608 --> 00:47:00,946
Natural Le Coultre has a lot
of storage here and over there.
616
00:47:01,029 --> 00:47:04,616
And below in the basement.
617
00:47:04,700 --> 00:47:08,996
Yves Bouvier inherited a shipping business
from his father.
618
00:47:10,664 --> 00:47:14,543
But Yves Bouvier realized
that there was increasing demand
619
00:47:14,626 --> 00:47:17,963
for places to store high-value goods.
620
00:47:19,923 --> 00:47:25,387
So he expanded his business
by creating armored warehouses
621
00:47:25,470 --> 00:47:28,682
generally within the perimeter
of an airport,
622
00:47:28,765 --> 00:47:30,684
and these are free ports.
623
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:34,271
The Geneva Freeport is supposed to hold
624
00:47:34,354 --> 00:47:38,358
literally billions
of dollars' worth of art.
625
00:47:40,277 --> 00:47:41,945
My name is Doug Patteson.
626
00:47:42,029 --> 00:47:45,115
A former clandestine service officer
with the CIA.
627
00:47:45,908 --> 00:47:50,746
The history of the Salvator Mundi
and how it's grown in value
628
00:47:50,829 --> 00:47:56,543
is opening eyes to how money
can be moving in different ways
629
00:47:57,211 --> 00:47:58,504
through the free port system.
630
00:48:00,506 --> 00:48:04,551
A free port is a tax-free haven...
631
00:48:05,552 --> 00:48:10,766
where very wealthy people will often
keep items secret from tax authorities.
632
00:48:14,853 --> 00:48:18,524
So objects can be bought
and sold within a free port,
633
00:48:19,107 --> 00:48:24,279
but no taxes apply because the objects
are considered still in transit.
634
00:48:25,447 --> 00:48:27,991
Now we're getting to the main lobby.
635
00:48:31,161 --> 00:48:33,330
Here are the showrooms.
636
00:48:33,413 --> 00:48:38,377
A client arrives with a dealer
or restorer or by himself.
637
00:48:38,460 --> 00:48:40,712
And the pieces are displayed here.
638
00:48:43,549 --> 00:48:46,510
One of the things
that we've really observed recently
639
00:48:46,593 --> 00:48:52,307
is that paintings are increasingly used
as collateral for loans, bank loans.
640
00:48:53,809 --> 00:48:57,312
A whole infrastructure
has sprung up around this
641
00:48:57,396 --> 00:48:59,398
that allows you, the collector,
642
00:48:59,481 --> 00:49:02,067
who've put millions of dollars
in your art,
643
00:49:02,150 --> 00:49:05,904
you can keep your art
within the free port facility,
644
00:49:05,988 --> 00:49:11,118
get the capital you have invested
in the art out of there and redeploy.
645
00:49:12,494 --> 00:49:15,998
It's not about art and love.
It's about money.
646
00:49:16,081 --> 00:49:17,916
It's about transferring funds.
647
00:49:23,380 --> 00:49:28,552
There's one thing that you cannot remove
from the human beings,
648
00:49:28,635 --> 00:49:30,179
is the greed.
649
00:49:32,222 --> 00:49:37,644
If you sit on valuable goods
and you don't trust your own country,
650
00:49:37,728 --> 00:49:40,189
because, you know,
the fiscal guys are on your back...
651
00:49:41,190 --> 00:49:47,279
why not store it in the free port
and store it in a so-called whatever safe?
652
00:49:48,572 --> 00:49:51,783
That gorilla is a big smoker.
653
00:49:51,867 --> 00:49:52,993
Interesting guy.
654
00:49:56,955 --> 00:50:01,668
If taxes were reasonable,
people would not have to play that game.
655
00:50:04,963 --> 00:50:08,759
You know, there is this saying
that after drugs and prostitution,
656
00:50:08,842 --> 00:50:12,763
that the art market is the most
unregulated market in the world.
657
00:50:12,846 --> 00:50:18,143
A very opaque world in which you very
often don't know who owns something,
658
00:50:18,227 --> 00:50:22,147
how much it's worth,
who's buying it or who's selling it.
659
00:50:22,231 --> 00:50:24,942
Most of the transactions
are very, very dark.
660
00:50:26,026 --> 00:50:28,320
It's another avenue to store money.
661
00:50:28,946 --> 00:50:32,115
It's the last vestiges
of the Wild Wild West.
662
00:50:34,743 --> 00:50:36,787
And now it's the Wild Wild East.
663
00:50:37,871 --> 00:50:43,293
Russia in the 1990s is the Wild West.
664
00:50:43,377 --> 00:50:47,673
And this is also a time
where businessmen had an opportunity
665
00:50:47,756 --> 00:50:52,261
to become exorbitantly wealthy
by taking ownership
666
00:50:52,344 --> 00:50:57,766
in the transitioning of bureaus
that became businesses.
667
00:50:57,850 --> 00:51:02,729
So out of this comes
Mr. Dmitry Rybolovlev,
668
00:51:02,813 --> 00:51:06,191
a man who becomes a billionaire
literally overnight
669
00:51:06,275 --> 00:51:11,154
when he floats this potash company
on the London Stock Exchange.
670
00:51:13,991 --> 00:51:19,329
In autumn 2008, he had a problem
with his mine Uralkali.
671
00:51:19,413 --> 00:51:20,747
It collapsed.
672
00:51:21,540 --> 00:51:26,128
The media called it the biggest ecological
disaster since Chernobyl
673
00:51:26,211 --> 00:51:27,421
in the Eastern Bloc.
674
00:51:28,297 --> 00:51:33,218
What you had was someone
who needed to get money out of Russia,
675
00:51:33,302 --> 00:51:36,889
and he found someone
who was quiet, discreet,
676
00:51:36,972 --> 00:51:39,474
and who he felt
he could trust with his life.
677
00:51:41,351 --> 00:51:45,522
His main goal was to convert money
sitting in the bank
678
00:51:45,606 --> 00:51:48,525
into mobile assets.
679
00:51:49,318 --> 00:51:53,322
He always said, "If I have a problem,
I can take them with me on my plane."
680
00:51:56,533 --> 00:52:00,746
The Russian on the run
and the quiet Swiss man,
681
00:52:00,829 --> 00:52:06,126
they forge this alliance
around the acquisition of art.
682
00:52:09,004 --> 00:52:15,385
This is a book about the collection
presenting the 38 pieces.
683
00:52:15,969 --> 00:52:18,722
These artworks
can't be found on the market.
684
00:52:20,557 --> 00:52:23,393
Yves Bouvier had built a network
685
00:52:23,477 --> 00:52:26,396
allowing him to get
all kinds of information
686
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:30,484
on who owned the paintings,
what was its real value.
687
00:52:32,361 --> 00:52:36,698
And that was priceless in order
to conduct his business.
688
00:52:38,033 --> 00:52:42,412
He was the king because
he was in possession of information
689
00:52:42,496 --> 00:52:43,789
that no one else had.
690
00:52:47,876 --> 00:52:52,673
Yves Bouvier sold 37 paintings
to Rybolovlev.
691
00:52:52,756 --> 00:52:58,971
And we believe that he pocketed
50% on those transactions.
692
00:53:02,432 --> 00:53:04,059
He made a billion dollars' profit.
693
00:53:05,352 --> 00:53:06,395
That's a good dealer.
694
00:53:07,771 --> 00:53:11,275
Yeah, it's good business.
695
00:53:13,443 --> 00:53:14,778
The sun is shining over Geneva.
696
00:53:17,197 --> 00:53:20,659
It's safer to buy a painting
than a piece of real estate
697
00:53:20,742 --> 00:53:23,996
because a piece of real estate
you can always seize it to jump on it.
698
00:53:24,079 --> 00:53:27,666
A painting is buried somewhere
in a free port around the world.
699
00:53:27,749 --> 00:53:30,878
Nobody knows where it is.
Look at the Salvator Mundi.
700
00:53:36,758 --> 00:53:38,760
Right now, I don't know where it is.
701
00:53:38,844 --> 00:53:42,931
I am so anxious for it
702
00:53:43,015 --> 00:53:45,851
to finally find a home
703
00:53:45,934 --> 00:53:49,980
where people can experience
the extraordinary power of this painting.
704
00:53:51,398 --> 00:53:54,234
Art, to me, is the only truth, really.
705
00:53:55,611 --> 00:53:59,531
And it's really a way of living life,
to communicate with people.
706
00:54:00,949 --> 00:54:03,243
Art doesn't exist in a vacuum.
707
00:54:03,327 --> 00:54:06,830
If it's existing in these great
warehouses that are free ports
708
00:54:06,914 --> 00:54:09,124
as a kind of financial asset...
709
00:54:09,958 --> 00:54:15,631
it would be a shame because it's
something that could be seen by people.
710
00:54:15,714 --> 00:54:17,966
It could have an effect on people.
711
00:54:20,928 --> 00:54:23,514
The whole world is trying to...
712
00:54:23,597 --> 00:54:26,600
Is discussing,
"Where the hell is that painting?"
713
00:54:26,683 --> 00:54:28,227
Nobody knows where it is.
714
00:54:30,312 --> 00:54:33,273
The buyer doesn't have to tell
where he puts his painting.
715
00:54:33,357 --> 00:54:35,609
They do whatever they want
with their money.
716
00:54:35,692 --> 00:54:36,610
Who cares?
717
00:54:37,361 --> 00:54:39,571
Only the press, the bad press,
718
00:54:40,447 --> 00:54:42,282
and the people who are curious
719
00:54:42,366 --> 00:54:45,786
are caring about something
that doesn't even concern them.
720
00:54:49,748 --> 00:54:55,963
2014 was really the beginning of the end
for Bouvier and Rybolovlev.
721
00:54:58,048 --> 00:55:04,763
An article was published that indicated
the price of the final sale,
722
00:55:04,847 --> 00:55:09,601
which, of course, was different
than what Rybolovlev had paid.
723
00:55:13,814 --> 00:55:15,023
It's common sense.
724
00:55:15,107 --> 00:55:19,653
You buy low and sell high.
It's the principle of commerce.
725
00:55:22,823 --> 00:55:26,368
People don't understand and say,
"Mr. Bouvier is a cheater."
726
00:55:27,202 --> 00:55:29,621
But Mr. Bouvier is a businessman
like any other.
727
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:39,214
So once Mr. R. found out,
he was pretty pissed off.
728
00:55:41,884 --> 00:55:44,887
And that really sparked the actions
729
00:55:44,970 --> 00:55:48,140
that were taken against Bouvier
that moved quite quickly after that.
730
00:55:51,018 --> 00:55:54,229
Mr. R. couldn't look at any
of his art collection the same.
731
00:55:54,730 --> 00:55:56,773
Every time he looked at a painting,
732
00:55:56,857 --> 00:55:59,693
if it was the greatest
masterpiece ever painted,
733
00:55:59,776 --> 00:56:04,198
all he saw was the fact
that he was abused and taken advantage of
734
00:56:04,281 --> 00:56:07,576
by Mr. Bouvier, who was now
the world's richest free port owner.
735
00:56:14,625 --> 00:56:19,129
The last conversation took place
on November 22, 2014.
736
00:56:19,213 --> 00:56:23,091
Rybolovlev and his lawyer told me,
737
00:56:23,175 --> 00:56:26,887
"Yves, I made you a fortune.
Now it's your turn to save mine.
738
00:56:28,514 --> 00:56:32,184
I want you to sell all the paintings
at the purchase price."
739
00:56:32,976 --> 00:56:36,438
It was November 22,
and he wanted it done by Christmas.
740
00:56:36,522 --> 00:56:41,151
"If you don't, you will have problems."
741
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:49,826
When a powerful oligarch threatens you
with problems if you don't sell,
742
00:56:49,910 --> 00:56:53,539
you get worried, actually, very worried.
743
00:56:54,456 --> 00:56:58,043
And it's impossible to sell a collection
like this in such a short time.
744
00:56:58,752 --> 00:57:01,547
So Bouvier told him, "No."
745
00:57:10,514 --> 00:57:13,892
His markup was 100%.
That's not a crime, it's greedy.
746
00:57:15,269 --> 00:57:18,355
What he was trying to do to screw Bouvier
747
00:57:18,438 --> 00:57:20,357
was to destroy his reputation,
748
00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:23,402
to sue him in every courthouse
that would entertain the suit.
749
00:57:28,198 --> 00:57:33,078
Rybolovlev contacted all the banks,
all the auction houses.
750
00:57:33,161 --> 00:57:34,955
So I'm blacklisted by the auction houses.
751
00:57:35,873 --> 00:57:39,168
I was on the front page
of every newspaper.
752
00:57:39,251 --> 00:57:41,003
I was discredited.
753
00:57:43,380 --> 00:57:47,759
My credit lines were canceled by the
banks. All my insurance was canceled.
754
00:57:54,850 --> 00:57:58,145
Trust is very important in our profession.
755
00:57:58,228 --> 00:58:03,734
People tell me, "As long as the legal
procedures with Mr. Rybolovlev continue,
756
00:58:03,817 --> 00:58:05,360
we're not doing business with you."
757
00:58:05,986 --> 00:58:07,988
Today, I have lost everything.
758
00:58:10,949 --> 00:58:13,785
He is really very angry,
like a Russian bear
759
00:58:13,869 --> 00:58:16,038
that somebody had stuck something into.
760
00:58:16,121 --> 00:58:17,623
He was furious!
761
00:58:19,625 --> 00:58:22,878
What he wanted to do
was dump all of his art
762
00:58:22,961 --> 00:58:27,257
that were great, fantastic pieces,
but he radically overpaid for them.
763
00:58:27,341 --> 00:58:31,053
So what he was fully expecting to do
was to lose money.
764
00:58:33,222 --> 00:58:38,810
People think of auction houses as
sort of a passive repository of objects
765
00:58:38,894 --> 00:58:43,357
to sell on behalf of collectors
who decide it's time to sell.
766
00:58:43,941 --> 00:58:48,070
Most of the actual
high-end objects they sell
767
00:58:48,153 --> 00:58:50,572
don't actually come to market in that way.
768
00:58:51,490 --> 00:58:52,699
Sold.
769
00:58:53,909 --> 00:58:55,619
They are actually out there.
770
00:58:55,702 --> 00:58:58,539
Their specialists
are in the living room of collectors
771
00:58:58,622 --> 00:59:02,751
and telling them it's the right time
to sell this work...
772
00:59:02,835 --> 00:59:05,462
Seventy-one, 72...
773
00:59:05,546 --> 00:59:07,464
...it's a hot market for this work,
774
00:59:07,548 --> 00:59:10,551
and they're trying to actually
pull in those objects.
775
00:59:11,218 --> 00:59:15,097
Thank you, all of you,
for one million six. To you, sir.
776
00:59:16,014 --> 00:59:20,143
If they've got the best art for sale,
they'll find the buyers.
777
00:59:20,227 --> 00:59:24,982
So the competition is at the level
of getting the consignments.
778
00:59:25,065 --> 00:59:26,984
You have it. What's your number?
779
00:59:28,068 --> 00:59:33,699
The guy at the auctioneer is always
European with a vague accent.
780
00:59:33,782 --> 00:59:36,493
"Do I have 2 million?
781
00:59:37,119 --> 00:59:41,039
Oh, John, I saw you
bid 3 million before.
782
00:59:41,123 --> 00:59:43,959
Oh, wait. I say!
783
00:59:44,042 --> 00:59:46,753
We have 5 million."
784
00:59:46,837 --> 00:59:49,131
Sold. Thank you very much indeed.
785
00:59:51,675 --> 00:59:53,135
So once Rybolovlev,
786
00:59:53,218 --> 00:59:56,722
when he does start selling,
he sells them through Christie's.
787
00:59:56,805 --> 00:59:59,641
And, of course,
that is where Salvator Mundi ends up.
788
01:00:04,646 --> 01:00:07,566
Nothing was wrong with his art,
except for the da Vinci.
789
01:00:07,649 --> 01:00:10,944
All of the other pieces in his collection
were fantastic pieces.
790
01:00:11,028 --> 01:00:15,240
This was the one black swan in his
collection that had questions around it.
791
01:00:15,324 --> 01:00:18,327
But there is a massive
billion-dollar collection behind it
792
01:00:18,410 --> 01:00:22,080
that could be potential future business
for the auction house.
793
01:00:24,082 --> 01:00:26,960
So Christie's had to keep
their client happy.
794
01:00:28,879 --> 01:00:31,048
They went all-in on this picture.
795
01:00:33,926 --> 01:00:38,388
The term "male Mona Lisa"
is used for this object.
796
01:00:38,472 --> 01:00:42,351
The Mona Lisa is insured
for over $800 million.
797
01:00:42,434 --> 01:00:47,314
So I think calling it the male Mona Lisa
makes sense as a marketer.
798
01:00:48,565 --> 01:00:52,444
On a financial front,
it helps to explain the value.
799
01:00:52,528 --> 01:00:58,325
The Mona Lisa, in the early 20th century,
was of secondary importance...
800
01:00:59,701 --> 01:01:04,498
until 1961, when John F. Kennedy
801
01:01:04,581 --> 01:01:08,627
makes his way to the Vienna summit
and makes a stop off in Paris.
802
01:01:10,254 --> 01:01:15,884
And their culture minister, André Malraux,
is completely entranced by Jacqueline.
803
01:01:15,968 --> 01:01:19,304
Jackie whispers in his ear
at one of the evening events
804
01:01:19,388 --> 01:01:22,808
that, "I'd love for you to take
the Mona Lisa to the United States
805
01:01:22,891 --> 01:01:26,645
so we could show our population
this cultural masterpiece."
806
01:01:27,479 --> 01:01:32,860
Mr. Minister, we in the United States
are grateful for this loan...
807
01:01:34,027 --> 01:01:37,573
from the leading artistic power
in the world, France.
808
01:01:37,656 --> 01:01:40,367
And lines go down the block.
809
01:01:40,450 --> 01:01:42,744
Most of the people
that were coming to see it
810
01:01:42,828 --> 01:01:45,289
were not coming to see the painting.
811
01:01:45,372 --> 01:01:49,793
They were coming to have seen the picture,
to say they saw the celebrity.
812
01:01:51,378 --> 01:01:55,257
Christie's understood they had
to accomplish the same thing,
813
01:01:55,340 --> 01:01:57,718
where this is the male Mona Lisa,
814
01:01:57,801 --> 01:02:03,056
we need to convince the potential buyer
that you're now buying a global celebrity
815
01:02:03,140 --> 01:02:06,977
that will play into the power
and prestige of your acquisition.
816
01:02:10,314 --> 01:02:13,483
Their primary marketing video
was brilliant in a way
817
01:02:13,567 --> 01:02:16,653
because it never actually
showed the object.
818
01:02:16,737 --> 01:02:20,699
What they show instead
is a series of people
819
01:02:20,782 --> 01:02:25,037
going up to the object
and having an emotional reaction to it.
820
01:02:26,455 --> 01:02:29,499
They even had Leonardo DiCaprio.
821
01:02:32,669 --> 01:02:37,674
They realized that they needed to show
whatever collector bought this thing,
822
01:02:37,758 --> 01:02:40,427
there was a mass following
823
01:02:40,511 --> 01:02:43,972
and that people
were buying into this celebrity.
824
01:02:45,891 --> 01:02:50,270
Christie's released a ton of marketing
825
01:02:50,354 --> 01:02:52,689
that generated traffic, generated hype.
826
01:02:52,773 --> 01:02:57,444
It brought the Salvator Mundi
into the mind's eye
827
01:02:57,528 --> 01:03:00,489
of so many people very quickly.
828
01:03:03,867 --> 01:03:08,830
This is some kind of an homage
to an artist, the first viral artist,
829
01:03:08,914 --> 01:03:13,043
who was the first
real image maker, who's...
830
01:03:13,126 --> 01:03:16,547
you know, who would have images
that would go all around the world
831
01:03:16,630 --> 01:03:18,006
and be recognized by anyone.
832
01:03:21,051 --> 01:03:23,095
Christie's is in the business of selling.
833
01:03:23,178 --> 01:03:26,223
It's not in the business
of authenticating.
834
01:03:26,306 --> 01:03:28,559
And they did a great job
835
01:03:28,642 --> 01:03:32,187
on the back of that amazing
marketing campaign,
836
01:03:32,271 --> 01:03:36,817
which everybody,
without hesitation, gives plaudits to
837
01:03:36,900 --> 01:03:39,444
as a sort of cynical marketing exercise.
838
01:03:39,528 --> 01:03:41,655
Any serious questions
about its authenticity?
839
01:03:41,738 --> 01:03:42,990
None, really.
840
01:03:43,073 --> 01:03:45,284
It was, as I said,
almost completely overpainted.
841
01:03:45,367 --> 01:03:48,662
But once that was removed,
after its rediscovery...
842
01:03:48,745 --> 01:03:52,249
...the quality of it became very evident,
843
01:03:52,332 --> 01:03:55,169
and, really, there hasn't been
any real question.
844
01:03:55,252 --> 01:03:57,129
Why is it called the male Mona Lisa?
845
01:03:57,212 --> 01:03:59,756
Well, it's painted around
the same time as Mona Lisa.
846
01:03:59,840 --> 01:04:01,675
It's painted around 1500.
847
01:04:01,758 --> 01:04:05,304
And this and the painting
of Mona Lisa probably overlap.
848
01:04:07,431 --> 01:04:11,226
The Salvator Mundi global tour
took on a life of its own,
849
01:04:11,310 --> 01:04:15,731
to London, to Hong Kong, where there
may be clusters of potential buyers.
850
01:04:15,814 --> 01:04:18,567
I was very opposed to them doing that.
851
01:04:18,650 --> 01:04:19,860
It was reckless...
852
01:04:20,944 --> 01:04:24,323
to send it around
the world that way. But they--
853
01:04:25,324 --> 01:04:26,909
I couldn't stop them from doing it.
854
01:04:26,992 --> 01:04:28,577
Christie's is mercenaries.
855
01:04:28,660 --> 01:04:31,788
That's a business.
You expect that behavior from them,
856
01:04:31,872 --> 01:04:34,917
and if you're a client of Christie's,
you want them to do anything
857
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:39,213
as ruthlessly as possible to get you
the greatest price for your asset.
858
01:04:41,924 --> 01:04:45,636
In the time I've been at this,
I never remember a picture
859
01:04:45,719 --> 01:04:48,138
becoming sort of a pop culture icon
860
01:04:48,222 --> 01:04:50,933
where lines were literally
around the corner.
861
01:04:51,016 --> 01:04:53,769
This was a cultural event
in its own right.
862
01:04:54,311 --> 01:04:58,649
By the time it came here to New York,
everyone wanted a piece of it.
863
01:05:01,276 --> 01:05:06,114
So Christie's, their tag line
is "the last Leonardo."
864
01:05:06,615 --> 01:05:09,159
Normally, what you'd do with an Old Master
865
01:05:09,243 --> 01:05:11,787
is you'd talk about
the provenance, its composition.
866
01:05:11,870 --> 01:05:14,164
None of that was required here.
867
01:05:14,248 --> 01:05:17,876
They knew they were gonna be appealing
to a subset of the collector base
868
01:05:17,960 --> 01:05:20,295
that was thinking about power and legacy.
869
01:05:21,296 --> 01:05:24,508
"Hey, Mr. Billionaire,
this is your last chance to acquire
870
01:05:24,591 --> 01:05:27,344
the greatest artist
of Western civilization."
871
01:05:27,427 --> 01:05:29,054
You have to know your audience
872
01:05:29,137 --> 01:05:32,182
because it was a trophy
to end all trophies.
873
01:05:32,266 --> 01:05:38,230
It is a work...
that's very subject is power.
874
01:05:40,774 --> 01:05:43,735
The morning of the sale,
I woke up at 6 a.m.
875
01:05:43,819 --> 01:05:49,116
and had a car fetch me and took me
to CNBC's headquarters in Midtown.
876
01:05:49,741 --> 01:05:53,245
The last privately owned Leonardo
da Vinci painting is going to auction...
877
01:05:53,328 --> 01:05:56,665
You know, there was so much interest
from the financial world.
878
01:05:56,748 --> 01:05:58,584
What would this thing actually make?
879
01:05:59,459 --> 01:06:01,628
-Who are those bidders?
-It's a good question.
880
01:06:01,712 --> 01:06:05,299
I think the bidders are gonna be
a contemporary collector,
881
01:06:05,382 --> 01:06:09,511
a trophy hunter, a private equity
executive, a hedge fund individual,
882
01:06:09,595 --> 01:06:13,473
or a syndicate from
the Middle East, Chinese wealthy.
883
01:06:13,557 --> 01:06:16,351
This is a global trophy,
and we'll see where it goes.
884
01:06:16,435 --> 01:06:20,814
I think it has a fighting chance
to make 180 million or more.
885
01:06:21,315 --> 01:06:22,649
And that 180 would have made it
886
01:06:22,733 --> 01:06:26,445
the most expensive painting ever sold
in the history of the art world.
887
01:06:30,574 --> 01:06:32,951
Welcome to Rockefeller Center
here in New York.
888
01:06:33,035 --> 01:06:36,079
You had a completely packed room.
889
01:06:36,163 --> 01:06:41,043
They had to bring in extra chairs,
people were pushed to every corner,
890
01:06:41,126 --> 01:06:44,087
corralled there to try
and take in the action.
891
01:06:45,589 --> 01:06:46,632
Ladies and gentlemen,
892
01:06:46,715 --> 01:06:49,801
we move to the Leonardo da Vinci,
the Salvator Mundi.
893
01:06:52,387 --> 01:06:54,806
Previously in the collections
of three kings of England.
894
01:06:55,599 --> 01:06:57,768
Going over here to take 125.
895
01:06:57,851 --> 01:06:59,561
Last chance, 125 then.
896
01:06:59,645 --> 01:07:01,480
130? 130 with...
897
01:07:04,441 --> 01:07:06,276
At 150 million.
898
01:07:06,985 --> 01:07:09,655
At 180 million...
899
01:07:10,739 --> 01:07:12,574
phones started to go up.
900
01:07:13,200 --> 01:07:15,619
At 180 million, ladies and gentlemen.
901
01:07:17,287 --> 01:07:21,333
Because that was the most valuable price
ever achieved at auction,
902
01:07:21,416 --> 01:07:23,919
and you could hear an audible gasp
903
01:07:24,002 --> 01:07:27,339
as everyone was sort of waiting
for that final hammer to come down.
904
01:07:29,299 --> 01:07:32,427
Give me 200, 190 is bid. Who--?
905
01:07:32,511 --> 01:07:35,472
200 million is bid. At 200 million.
906
01:07:35,556 --> 01:07:37,432
There it is at 205.
907
01:07:38,475 --> 01:07:44,273
It was hard to tell how much
of the loss of composure was genuine
908
01:07:44,356 --> 01:07:47,276
and how much of it was for the crowd.
909
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:51,780
At one point, he even has
the hammer held in the air.
910
01:07:51,864 --> 01:07:55,158
There is a certain courtesy
about how long you wait
911
01:07:55,242 --> 01:07:57,452
for someone to decide
if they're gonna make the bid.
912
01:07:57,536 --> 01:08:00,497
In the weeks leading up to the auction,
913
01:08:00,581 --> 01:08:03,292
the team at Christie's
are receiving calls
914
01:08:03,375 --> 01:08:05,085
from some of the world's richest people.
915
01:08:05,169 --> 01:08:07,087
At the very end of this list
916
01:08:07,171 --> 01:08:10,632
is this one bidder
that they've never heard of before.
917
01:08:10,716 --> 01:08:12,759
They needed to make sure
he was a real bidder.
918
01:08:12,843 --> 01:08:15,345
So they told him and his team,
919
01:08:15,429 --> 01:08:18,348
"Listen, if you want to be
a bidder in this auction,
920
01:08:18,432 --> 01:08:21,100
you're gonna have to transfer 10%
921
01:08:21,185 --> 01:08:24,188
of what is the maximum amount
you would be willing to pay."
922
01:08:24,270 --> 01:08:26,564
The next morning,
the accounting department came over
923
01:08:26,648 --> 01:08:28,734
and said, "You won't believe this,
924
01:08:28,817 --> 01:08:32,863
but that guy just transferred $100 million
into our account overnight."
925
01:08:34,363 --> 01:08:38,743
Oftentimes, there is
a predetermined price of sorts.
926
01:08:38,827 --> 01:08:42,747
Very few people,
or sometimes only one person,
927
01:08:42,831 --> 01:08:45,334
knows what that final amount will be.
928
01:08:46,710 --> 01:08:51,089
220 is bid, a casual hand
goes up at 220 million.
929
01:08:54,635 --> 01:08:56,845
Are you all done here, sir? Are you out?
930
01:08:59,348 --> 01:09:00,765
240 million?
931
01:09:02,225 --> 01:09:03,393
So we're all done?
932
01:09:04,728 --> 01:09:05,604
Maybe not.
933
01:09:08,148 --> 01:09:10,024
Don't take the photograph quite yet.
934
01:09:16,323 --> 01:09:18,116
Still two of you in the game here.
935
01:09:18,908 --> 01:09:22,746
It became clear that,
okay, we're in a duel.
936
01:09:22,828 --> 01:09:27,292
On one telephone, you had someone
who wanted to be completely incremental,
937
01:09:27,376 --> 01:09:29,294
that was playing with his own money.
938
01:09:29,377 --> 01:09:32,673
And then you had someone
who was using house money.
939
01:09:32,756 --> 01:09:36,134
And that house money
was probably not an individual,
940
01:09:36,218 --> 01:09:39,054
but maybe, maybe even a country.
941
01:09:40,055 --> 01:09:41,180
I thought so.
942
01:09:42,474 --> 01:09:43,642
300 million.
943
01:09:53,402 --> 01:09:54,528
300 million.
944
01:09:55,237 --> 01:09:57,948
Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci.
945
01:09:59,491 --> 01:10:01,618
320 million, we're still not done.
946
01:10:01,702 --> 01:10:03,996
At 330 million now.
947
01:10:04,496 --> 01:10:08,292
At 332 million.
948
01:10:09,042 --> 01:10:10,377
Back to Francois.
949
01:10:10,460 --> 01:10:11,670
Three-fifty.
950
01:10:16,967 --> 01:10:18,635
350? Okay.
951
01:10:21,847 --> 01:10:25,475
At 350 million
for Leonardo's Salvator Mundi.
952
01:10:25,559 --> 01:10:27,811
-400.
-400 million!
953
01:10:37,988 --> 01:10:40,240
Salvator Mundi selling here at Christie's.
954
01:10:40,324 --> 01:10:45,579
$400 million is the bid,
and the piece is... sold.
955
01:10:55,714 --> 01:10:57,758
The art world is stunned,
they are shocked,
956
01:10:57,841 --> 01:10:59,426
they can't believe it this morning
957
01:10:59,510 --> 01:11:02,221
after the astonishing record-breaking
sale of a rare masterpiece.
958
01:11:05,682 --> 01:11:08,560
Who paid 450 million?
959
01:11:10,354 --> 01:11:13,607
Probably a billionaire that bought it.
Your response to me was, "Well, duh!"
960
01:11:15,359 --> 01:11:18,529
It's a very anonymous world,
961
01:11:19,488 --> 01:11:21,740
and people aren't always
quick to say, "It's me.
962
01:11:21,823 --> 01:11:24,409
I spent all this money,
I have all this money.
963
01:11:24,493 --> 01:11:26,453
Come to my house,
take whatever you want."
964
01:11:26,537 --> 01:11:28,956
You know, there's privacy
because there's fear
965
01:11:29,039 --> 01:11:31,834
around showing your wealth to that degree.
966
01:11:31,917 --> 01:11:36,797
We'll not comment on the identity
and the geography of the buyer.
967
01:11:37,339 --> 01:11:41,093
Even if it's decided months,
years, decades later
968
01:11:41,176 --> 01:11:43,679
that it's not really by Leonardo da Vinci,
969
01:11:44,471 --> 01:11:48,141
those $450 million
will live out in eternity
970
01:11:48,225 --> 01:11:51,979
as a value put upon this work of art.
971
01:12:00,362 --> 01:12:03,866
This director of Metropolitan
Museum of Art
972
01:12:03,949 --> 01:12:07,411
wrote on his Instagram page
after the sale:
973
01:12:08,662 --> 01:12:13,292
"Watch out, 85% of the painting
is by Dianne Modestini."
974
01:12:14,710 --> 01:12:18,922
And that then was picked up by...
975
01:12:19,798 --> 01:12:23,093
a whole lot of people
who didn't know anything.
976
01:12:23,177 --> 01:12:27,014
There were people of all walks,
museum curators,
977
01:12:27,097 --> 01:12:29,600
art historians and regular people,
just chiming in.
978
01:12:29,683 --> 01:12:34,229
People who had never had
any weight, or interest even,
979
01:12:34,313 --> 01:12:39,109
were suddenly decrying this image
as false and a fraud.
980
01:12:39,193 --> 01:12:42,196
Then all these, you know,
Internet trolls started saying,
981
01:12:42,279 --> 01:12:45,157
"Oh, that's because
it's not really by Leonardo,
982
01:12:45,240 --> 01:12:47,284
and nobody accepts the attribution."
983
01:12:48,202 --> 01:12:54,124
This is just for self-publicity
and to create a scandal,
984
01:12:54,208 --> 01:12:57,127
and nobody really cares what the truth is.
985
01:12:57,836 --> 01:13:00,797
One of the people that spoke most vocally
986
01:13:00,881 --> 01:13:05,052
about the Salvator Mundi
being fake was Jerry Saltz.
987
01:13:05,135 --> 01:13:11,892
I've been looking at art for 40 years,
and this is a made-up piece of junk.
988
01:13:11,975 --> 01:13:13,519
Real.
989
01:13:14,144 --> 01:13:15,145
In drag.
990
01:13:22,152 --> 01:13:27,491
The Salvator Mundi, it is no more real
991
01:13:28,367 --> 01:13:34,414
than any of the other
dreamed-up scams and schemes
992
01:13:34,498 --> 01:13:40,879
by people that may not mean
to be flimflamming...
993
01:13:43,465 --> 01:13:47,511
but in the end,
they all went along for the ride.
994
01:13:48,971 --> 01:13:52,015
Which is the lesson of our time.
995
01:13:52,641 --> 01:13:55,143
I go along with the lie,
996
01:13:55,227 --> 01:13:58,939
I don't say anything because
I don't want to be kicked off
997
01:13:59,022 --> 01:14:03,026
the island of love, of power,
998
01:14:03,110 --> 01:14:05,904
of money, of influence.
999
01:14:05,988 --> 01:14:08,490
So you have museum people,
1000
01:14:09,032 --> 01:14:14,329
you have collectors,
curators, art historians.
1001
01:14:15,163 --> 01:14:19,710
Of course, the auction houses
who make a big deal about everything.
1002
01:14:19,793 --> 01:14:23,714
"Oh, it's our dream painting."
Always pushing.
1003
01:14:23,797 --> 01:14:26,341
Everybody was complicit
1004
01:14:26,425 --> 01:14:30,470
in dreaming up this beautiful dream
1005
01:14:30,554 --> 01:14:33,891
of a lost Leonardo da Vinci.
1006
01:14:40,647 --> 01:14:44,526
People can get lots of media attention
1007
01:14:44,610 --> 01:14:48,614
by saying something
outrageous about this painting.
1008
01:14:57,664 --> 01:15:01,710
Anyway, so I'm just kind of
trying to make a case for myself.
1009
01:15:06,048 --> 01:15:10,385
I have continued to study
the Salvator Mundi.
1010
01:15:11,094 --> 01:15:16,225
I went to Naples to look at a copy
of the Salvator Mundi.
1011
01:15:33,825 --> 01:15:38,664
I've tried to explain some of
the questions about the painting.
1012
01:15:47,589 --> 01:15:52,511
There is all this documentation,
so I put everything up on a website.
1013
01:15:53,929 --> 01:15:58,642
And I want to give anyone
who is interested
1014
01:15:58,725 --> 01:16:01,854
all the information that I have
1015
01:16:01,937 --> 01:16:06,483
so that they can
make up their own mind.
1016
01:16:08,777 --> 01:16:11,113
After this, I will have my life back.
1017
01:16:11,196 --> 01:16:13,740
Because everything I know,
1018
01:16:13,824 --> 01:16:17,494
or probably ever will know,
about this painting
1019
01:16:17,578 --> 01:16:19,121
is on this website.
1020
01:16:20,956 --> 01:16:22,624
Let's hear it for Salvator Mundi.
1021
01:16:26,461 --> 01:16:29,464
Do you feel that you have
to defend yourself in your work?
1022
01:16:29,548 --> 01:16:30,382
No.
1023
01:16:31,884 --> 01:16:32,801
No, I don't.
1024
01:16:43,604 --> 01:16:47,024
A $450 million purchase price,
1025
01:16:47,107 --> 01:16:49,276
and nobody knows who's buying it?
1026
01:16:49,359 --> 01:16:53,155
The intelligence community
is absolutely gonna want to understand
1027
01:16:53,238 --> 01:16:55,949
where did the funds come from,
where are they going.
1028
01:16:56,033 --> 01:16:57,659
It's very difficult to check auctions.
1029
01:16:57,743 --> 01:16:59,870
The reason for that
is because of the opaqueness.
1030
01:17:01,538 --> 01:17:03,457
Is there money laundering taking place?
1031
01:17:03,540 --> 01:17:06,877
Is there a shifting of assets
to support terrorists?
1032
01:17:06,960 --> 01:17:08,420
Is it state money?
1033
01:17:10,797 --> 01:17:15,135
That anyone would pay that kind of money
for a piece that had questions about it
1034
01:17:15,219 --> 01:17:16,595
is very strange.
1035
01:17:18,347 --> 01:17:21,517
The intelligence community
knew very quickly
1036
01:17:21,600 --> 01:17:24,436
who had bought it
and how they'd bought it,
1037
01:17:25,062 --> 01:17:28,023
and chooses to release that information.
1038
01:17:32,528 --> 01:17:37,324
Around the end of 2017,
I'm based in London.
1039
01:17:37,407 --> 01:17:39,618
An old contact of mine
from the Middle East
1040
01:17:39,701 --> 01:17:41,828
gets in touch and wants to meet.
1041
01:17:41,912 --> 01:17:46,542
He refuses to tell me why we're meeting,
1042
01:17:46,625 --> 01:17:48,585
but when we sit down together,
1043
01:17:48,669 --> 01:17:51,839
he shows me some rather
extraordinary documents.
1044
01:17:52,631 --> 01:17:58,011
And these documents are the details
of the arrangements for the sale
1045
01:17:58,095 --> 01:18:01,265
between the Christie's
auction house and the buyer.
1046
01:18:01,348 --> 01:18:05,811
Reports suggest that the Saudi Arabia's
crown prince is the mysterious buyer
1047
01:18:05,894 --> 01:18:08,939
of a rare Leonardo da Vinci painting.
1048
01:18:12,067 --> 01:18:15,445
Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
who has recently become
1049
01:18:15,529 --> 01:18:18,031
the effective ruler of Saudi Arabia.
1050
01:18:19,533 --> 01:18:23,453
What was so extraordinary
about this purchase
1051
01:18:23,537 --> 01:18:26,832
is that Prince Mohammed bin Salman
had made this splurge
1052
01:18:26,915 --> 01:18:32,212
at the same time that he was
cracking down on the Saudi elite,
1053
01:18:32,296 --> 01:18:34,506
including many of his own royal cousins.
1054
01:18:36,800 --> 01:18:39,636
He had imprisoned many of them
in the Ritz Carlton,
1055
01:18:39,720 --> 01:18:42,931
forcing them to try to turn over
hundreds of millions of dollars
1056
01:18:43,015 --> 01:18:46,685
that he said had been stolen from
the Saudi government that he wanted back.
1057
01:18:46,768 --> 01:18:48,770
His family, by the way,
is the Saudi government.
1058
01:18:52,649 --> 01:18:58,447
Right around the same time, he had spent
half a billion dollars on a yacht,
1059
01:18:58,530 --> 01:19:03,243
and a short time later,
$300 million on a French château.
1060
01:19:07,456 --> 01:19:10,626
And then there's one more wrinkle,
which is the content of this work.
1061
01:19:12,169 --> 01:19:15,881
Most Islamic scholars,
including the ones that are dominant
1062
01:19:15,964 --> 01:19:18,050
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
1063
01:19:18,133 --> 01:19:24,014
believe that Islam forbids the depiction
in art of any of the prophets.
1064
01:19:24,097 --> 01:19:26,892
So it's a sacrilegious painting.
1065
01:19:28,936 --> 01:19:33,106
And Saudi Arabia has never yet
publicly acknowledged
1066
01:19:33,190 --> 01:19:37,903
that he or the government of Saudi Arabia
is the owner of that work of art.
1067
01:19:37,986 --> 01:19:41,031
Have you been able to obtain
any information about
1068
01:19:41,114 --> 01:19:44,243
when and where
this piece of art will be revealed?
1069
01:19:44,326 --> 01:19:47,788
No. No one knows.
It remains a complete mystery.
1070
01:19:50,624 --> 01:19:55,003
I had unequivocal confirmation
that the painting was on the boat.
1071
01:19:59,007 --> 01:20:03,720
I got this story and, like,
all of a sudden it was in one newspaper,
1072
01:20:03,804 --> 01:20:05,556
then it was in another newspaper,
1073
01:20:05,639 --> 01:20:09,685
then it was translated into
one, two, three, four languages.
1074
01:20:09,768 --> 01:20:12,312
CNN is on the phone.
TIME magazine is on the phone.
1075
01:20:12,396 --> 01:20:14,857
I didn't think it would strike
an international nerve
1076
01:20:14,940 --> 01:20:19,111
and become the most read article
I've written in my entire life, 30 years.
1077
01:20:20,612 --> 01:20:21,572
The Art Newspaper,
1078
01:20:21,655 --> 01:20:24,741
after I wrote the article
disclosing where the painting was,
1079
01:20:24,825 --> 01:20:27,202
they literally tracked
the boat to the Netherlands
1080
01:20:27,286 --> 01:20:30,789
and it was just a few-hour drive
from the Louvre.
1081
01:20:35,544 --> 01:20:38,839
And now to the blockbuster
exhibition of the year,
1082
01:20:38,922 --> 01:20:43,218
perhaps of many years,
a celebration of Leonardo da Vinci,
1083
01:20:43,302 --> 01:20:45,345
500 years after his death.
1084
01:20:50,893 --> 01:20:56,899
The Louvre Museum is organizing
a big retrospective of his works.
1085
01:20:56,982 --> 01:20:59,735
It is absolutely unique.
1086
01:21:01,236 --> 01:21:04,656
This is the 500th anniversary
of Leonardo's death.
1087
01:21:04,740 --> 01:21:06,491
This is the big show.
1088
01:21:07,409 --> 01:21:10,370
There is huge expectation
that if it does turn up,
1089
01:21:10,454 --> 01:21:16,001
the curator, Vincent Delieuvin, will have
a chance to nail the attribution.
1090
01:21:16,793 --> 01:21:19,838
Are you still hoping to show
the Salvator Mundi?
1091
01:21:19,922 --> 01:21:24,510
I confirm that the Louvre
asked to loan the painting
1092
01:21:24,593 --> 01:21:26,678
and we hope to show it at the exhibition.
1093
01:21:26,762 --> 01:21:28,096
Who did you ask for the loan?
1094
01:21:29,306 --> 01:21:32,643
Officially, we don't know who owns it.
1095
01:21:32,726 --> 01:21:36,313
People say it belongs to MBS,
the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
1096
01:21:36,939 --> 01:21:40,234
Everybody's really talking
about the Salvator Mundi.
1097
01:21:40,317 --> 01:21:41,318
Will it show up?
1098
01:21:41,401 --> 01:21:46,740
And we're dealing with an owner
that is very secretive.
1099
01:21:48,575 --> 01:21:51,203
I am Stéphane Lacroix,
professor of political science
1100
01:21:51,286 --> 01:21:54,623
and part of the International
Research Institute at Sciences Po.
1101
01:21:55,249 --> 01:22:02,089
In 2017, MBS became the central figure
of power in Saudi Arabia.
1102
01:22:02,172 --> 01:22:05,467
He led repressive operations
1103
01:22:05,551 --> 01:22:10,639
against economic, intellectual
and religious counterpowers.
1104
01:22:10,722 --> 01:22:14,142
The missing U.S.-based journalist
is no longer alive.
1105
01:22:14,226 --> 01:22:17,062
The coalition's airstrikes
may amount to war crimes.
1106
01:22:17,145 --> 01:22:21,024
In order for Saudi Arabia
to survive the end of oil,
1107
01:22:21,108 --> 01:22:24,319
he needs to promote
a new image of the country.
1108
01:22:24,903 --> 01:22:26,446
He understands
1109
01:22:26,530 --> 01:22:31,827
that he can achieve it through culture
and particularly through art.
1110
01:22:33,579 --> 01:22:37,040
A collaboration
was launched months earlier
1111
01:22:37,124 --> 01:22:40,502
for the construction
of a tourist site in AlUla.
1112
01:22:46,675 --> 01:22:51,513
The Saudis make massive investments
in the development of this site
1113
01:22:51,597 --> 01:22:56,518
and appoint France
and French companies
1114
01:22:56,602 --> 01:23:00,272
as intermediaries.
1115
01:23:01,440 --> 01:23:05,110
On the back of that,
there were also promises for contracts.
1116
01:23:05,194 --> 01:23:08,030
Basically arms deals.
1117
01:23:11,450 --> 01:23:13,035
So the French could benefit
1118
01:23:13,118 --> 01:23:15,329
from the lucrative contracts
for their companies.
1119
01:23:19,124 --> 01:23:24,046
The Arabian states, they want to sort of
be seen as cultural nations,
1120
01:23:24,129 --> 01:23:27,049
and for this cultural nation building,
1121
01:23:27,132 --> 01:23:33,514
they need to place the Salvator Mundi
in the Paris Louvre show
1122
01:23:33,597 --> 01:23:35,182
because it's a political thing.
1123
01:23:35,807 --> 01:23:40,437
That's what art is being used for today,
this kind of soft political capital,
1124
01:23:40,521 --> 01:23:44,149
where we may have sliced up a journalist
or all of these terrible things,
1125
01:23:44,233 --> 01:23:48,862
and then you cover it
with a nice painting and it's a diversion.
1126
01:23:50,906 --> 01:23:54,243
In April, 2018, MBS arrives in Paris.
1127
01:23:56,912 --> 01:24:01,875
One could imagine that they talk
about the Salvator Mundi.
1128
01:24:04,211 --> 01:24:08,757
If the Louvre says it's an autographed
Leonardo, that is a big deal.
1129
01:24:09,716 --> 01:24:12,761
It's not just art history,
it's world politics.
1130
01:24:17,558 --> 01:24:20,018
The curator of the Louvre
at this moment has a problem
1131
01:24:20,102 --> 01:24:24,940
because, politically,
he cannot refuse the Salvator Mundi.
1132
01:24:25,023 --> 01:24:28,986
He cannot refuse the attribution
to Leonardo,
1133
01:24:29,069 --> 01:24:32,948
but nobody at the moment knows
what's going on there.
1134
01:24:35,909 --> 01:24:40,455
We know that the painting
was brought to Paris in June, 2018,
1135
01:24:40,539 --> 01:24:45,252
where it was taken to the Louvre
laboratory for a top-secret examination.
1136
01:24:46,712 --> 01:24:49,339
So it's just about six days
before the opening
1137
01:24:50,048 --> 01:24:54,386
and I receive the plan
for the installation of the exhibition.
1138
01:24:55,053 --> 01:25:01,351
And on that plan is the Salvator Mundi
given pride of place in the final room.
1139
01:25:02,853 --> 01:25:05,981
If it were to be presented
as a true Leonardo,
1140
01:25:06,064 --> 01:25:08,901
he would make
the institution ridiculous.
1141
01:25:08,984 --> 01:25:13,363
So I wrote to the president
of the French Republic:
1142
01:25:13,447 --> 01:25:19,453
"Mr. President, I can assure you
that it would be most unfortunate
1143
01:25:19,536 --> 01:25:21,914
if the painting is presented at the Louvre
1144
01:25:21,997 --> 01:25:25,501
as being entirely painted
by Leonardo da Vinci."
1145
01:25:32,466 --> 01:25:37,221
So we're all waiting to see
if the Salvator Mundi shows up.
1146
01:25:39,640 --> 01:25:43,018
It would be good if the Salvator Mundi
belonged to the public.
1147
01:25:45,229 --> 01:25:48,398
The Louvre has all the latest
imaging equipment
1148
01:25:48,482 --> 01:25:51,401
to examine the painting,
and that would be wonderful.
1149
01:25:59,785 --> 01:26:03,121
And I arrive
at the advanced press preview
1150
01:26:03,205 --> 01:26:07,125
and immediately run
through the entire exhibition to see,
1151
01:26:07,209 --> 01:26:09,920
is the Salvator Mundi in the last room?
1152
01:26:17,636 --> 01:26:22,724
And there on the wall is a bare spot
with three picture hooks.
1153
01:26:25,644 --> 01:26:27,521
We think, "Are they about to hang it?
1154
01:26:27,604 --> 01:26:31,817
Is this a moment of theater
that they have planned for the press?"
1155
01:26:32,359 --> 01:26:37,197
And we then,
to our huge disappointment...
1156
01:26:37,865 --> 01:26:40,492
we get a shrug of the shoulders
from the Louvre.
1157
01:26:41,285 --> 01:26:43,161
Where is the Salvator Mundi?
1158
01:26:45,581 --> 01:26:47,332
We couldn't get all the paintings.
1159
01:26:47,416 --> 01:26:50,085
We asked to loan the Salvator Mundi
from its owner.
1160
01:26:50,169 --> 01:26:53,505
We're still open for discussion.
1161
01:26:53,589 --> 01:26:58,218
One painting not here,
the still controversial Salvator Mundi.
1162
01:26:58,302 --> 01:27:01,847
Here instead,
a copy from the same period.
1163
01:27:02,514 --> 01:27:06,018
People were transfixed, and I kept--
I said to a couple that...
1164
01:27:06,101 --> 01:27:09,897
I said, "It's a copy.
Don't you know that this is a copy?"
1165
01:27:09,980 --> 01:27:14,234
Some of them looked a little confused,
but they kept taking pictures of it.
1166
01:27:15,611 --> 01:27:18,989
I was hoping up until the last minute
that it would turn up.
1167
01:27:20,866 --> 01:27:24,661
The most notorious no-show
is the Salvator Mundi.
1168
01:27:35,797 --> 01:27:37,466
It's actually shrouded in mystery
1169
01:27:37,549 --> 01:27:40,761
because no one has seen it
since the sale in 2017.
1170
01:27:47,559 --> 01:27:49,728
People can say whatever they want.
1171
01:27:50,312 --> 01:27:52,272
It's like putting out wildfires.
1172
01:27:54,733 --> 01:27:59,112
You know, one goes away and another one
immediately crops up somewhere else.
1173
01:28:00,030 --> 01:28:02,616
It never, never stops.
1174
01:28:12,668 --> 01:28:16,129
A few days ago,
I had a really strange experience.
1175
01:28:18,090 --> 01:28:23,971
I visited an art historian at his house
and he had some books on the table.
1176
01:28:24,888 --> 01:28:30,352
Among them was a small catalog
of the Salvator Mundi.
1177
01:28:31,228 --> 01:28:32,563
Published by the Louvre.
1178
01:28:34,022 --> 01:28:37,192
And I was really taken aback and I said...
1179
01:28:37,860 --> 01:28:40,237
I said,
"What is this? I've never seen it."
1180
01:28:40,320 --> 01:28:42,614
He said,
"Oh, I bought it at the exhibition."
1181
01:28:43,198 --> 01:28:45,242
And I said, "Oh, that's strange."
1182
01:28:48,203 --> 01:28:51,290
I started to look for it.
Not for sale anywhere.
1183
01:28:51,373 --> 01:28:55,210
I asked our librarian
if he could track it down,
1184
01:28:55,794 --> 01:28:59,381
and he said,
"It doesn't seem to exist."
1185
01:29:01,508 --> 01:29:04,469
I have heard nothing about this book,
1186
01:29:04,553 --> 01:29:09,600
and I find out that
it is produced by the Louvre
1187
01:29:09,683 --> 01:29:11,935
on the occasion of the exhibition.
1188
01:29:12,477 --> 01:29:16,148
And it is full of some
new technical examination
1189
01:29:16,231 --> 01:29:17,774
they have done of the picture.
1190
01:29:19,443 --> 01:29:23,113
The book recapitulates
the history of the painting,
1191
01:29:23,614 --> 01:29:29,953
then goes on to attribute it
securely to Leonardo.
1192
01:29:34,499 --> 01:29:39,421
This is the first time that we have
an independent body, really,
1193
01:29:39,505 --> 01:29:42,466
doing a thorough analysis of the picture.
1194
01:29:44,635 --> 01:29:46,553
But it's difficult to know
what to believe
1195
01:29:46,637 --> 01:29:51,600
when you've got a lost painting,
a lost book,
1196
01:29:51,683 --> 01:29:55,687
and no access to the scientific
examinations themselves.
1197
01:30:01,527 --> 01:30:04,488
There's no doubt for the Louvre.
1198
01:30:05,364 --> 01:30:11,328
So why don't they want
to publish this information?
1199
01:30:11,411 --> 01:30:15,999
Are you talking about a book published
by the Louvre about the Salvator Mundi?
1200
01:30:16,083 --> 01:30:18,919
-Yes.
-We didn't publish such a book.
1201
01:30:19,002 --> 01:30:21,755
-So it is not possible to see it?
-No.
1202
01:30:21,839 --> 01:30:25,509
Is it because all the copies
have been destroyed?
1203
01:30:25,592 --> 01:30:27,177
-Yes.
-Okay.
1204
01:30:27,261 --> 01:30:33,100
Someone bought the book
in the Louvre bookstore.
1205
01:30:33,183 --> 01:30:36,812
-Was it a mistake or what happened?
-Yes, I guess it must have been.
1206
01:30:37,646 --> 01:30:42,442
I think you understand. We don't want
the content of this book to be published.
1207
01:30:42,526 --> 01:30:45,320
It was connected to the loan.
1208
01:30:45,404 --> 01:30:48,323
The loan didn't happen,
so there is no book.
1209
01:30:48,407 --> 01:30:53,704
If a public institution
takes a position on something,
1210
01:30:53,787 --> 01:30:57,082
the public has the right to know
what has been decided, no?
1211
01:30:57,165 --> 01:31:00,836
Are you asking me?
Ask the president of France.
1212
01:31:06,383 --> 01:31:12,222
Let me say something about
institutional knowledge and authority.
1213
01:31:13,891 --> 01:31:17,644
It's not as real and as foolproof,
1214
01:31:18,145 --> 01:31:21,190
and as clean, immaculate...
1215
01:31:22,399 --> 01:31:23,525
as you think.
1216
01:31:23,609 --> 01:31:25,319
It is never neutral.
1217
01:31:25,944 --> 01:31:29,239
Power is never neutral.
1218
01:31:48,467 --> 01:31:52,804
You know people at the Louvre.
What do they say about the rumors?
1219
01:31:53,972 --> 01:31:57,643
The Salvator Mundi...
1220
01:31:57,726 --> 01:32:04,024
And these are not rumors.
I have sources to confirm it.
1221
01:32:04,107 --> 01:32:09,738
The Salvator Mundi was supposed
to be loaned for the exhibition.
1222
01:32:09,821 --> 01:32:14,660
But the owner wanted it to be shown
in the same room as the Mona Lisa,
1223
01:32:15,327 --> 01:32:21,458
which would have put
the two paintings on the same level.
1224
01:32:23,961 --> 01:32:27,923
The Louvre did not want to present it
in the same room as the Mona Lisa.
1225
01:32:28,006 --> 01:32:31,218
So the owner refused to lend it.
1226
01:32:37,099 --> 01:32:40,060
So why did MBS pull the work
at the last minute?
1227
01:32:41,228 --> 01:32:44,731
What he wanted to do was
elevate the Salvator Mundi
1228
01:32:44,815 --> 01:32:46,775
to the level of the Mona Lisa
1229
01:32:46,859 --> 01:32:50,445
by placing it not amongst
the lesser da Vincis,
1230
01:32:50,529 --> 01:32:53,949
where the work would be subjected
to every academic
1231
01:32:54,032 --> 01:32:57,619
who wanted to make a name for themselves
by opining on the work.
1232
01:32:59,246 --> 01:33:05,502
He wanted it opposite the Mona Lisa
as a civilizational masterpiece.
1233
01:33:16,305 --> 01:33:18,974
It was just a raw power, you know,
1234
01:33:19,057 --> 01:33:23,228
"We own this thing, we're gonna
show it to the world when we're ready."
1235
01:33:28,275 --> 01:33:30,736
For shit sure the painting's
gonna turn up again.
1236
01:33:30,819 --> 01:33:33,030
You can stick it
in some place in the desert
1237
01:33:33,113 --> 01:33:36,533
and start to lure tourists
from all over the world to see it
1238
01:33:36,617 --> 01:33:38,827
and stand in front of it like Disneyland.
1239
01:33:39,453 --> 01:33:40,621
That's gonna happen.
1240
01:33:45,918 --> 01:33:52,090
There is something in the relationship
that MBS has created with the painting.
1241
01:33:54,718 --> 01:33:58,472
There is this "savior of the world"
represented as a young man
1242
01:33:58,555 --> 01:34:01,975
with a beard,
in which MBS might see himself.
1243
01:34:02,059 --> 01:34:04,478
He might have developed
a connection with the painting
1244
01:34:04,561 --> 01:34:06,396
and wants to keep it for himself
1245
01:34:07,231 --> 01:34:11,735
like some kind of mirror of himself
or how he would like to be seen.
1246
01:34:33,215 --> 01:34:36,343
At this moment, it is a da Vinci,
1247
01:34:36,426 --> 01:34:40,806
and even the debate adds
some attractive force to it.
1248
01:34:41,390 --> 01:34:43,892
Even that there are folks
that may disagree
1249
01:34:43,976 --> 01:34:47,187
makes you want to go look in its eye
and see for yourself
1250
01:34:47,271 --> 01:34:49,356
what all the fuss is about.
1251
01:34:54,444 --> 01:34:58,866
My greatest regret is that
it did not go to a museum.
1252
01:35:00,450 --> 01:35:04,037
And of course, everyone's idea
of the picture is now formed
1253
01:35:04,121 --> 01:35:07,624
by mystery and legend and speculation.
1254
01:35:07,708 --> 01:35:10,002
I still have lots of art supplies here.
1255
01:35:13,672 --> 01:35:18,010
It would be very surprising
if all the experts suddenly said,
1256
01:35:18,552 --> 01:35:21,221
"Oh, yes, this is absolutely by Leonardo."
1257
01:35:23,724 --> 01:35:25,642
And there are no documents.
1258
01:35:25,726 --> 01:35:31,440
It cannot be proven, you know,
factually, beyond a doubt.
1259
01:35:41,408 --> 01:35:42,534
You okay?
1260
01:35:52,461 --> 01:35:55,923
Of course I wish that I could move on.
1261
01:36:00,677 --> 01:36:05,682
But the Salvator Mundi is always with me
because I'm never allowed to forget.
1262
01:36:09,144 --> 01:36:13,148
The mystery is sort of solved,
but not really.
1263
01:36:13,232 --> 01:36:17,694
And this, again, is a whole new
sort of rabbit hole, hall of mirrors.
1264
01:36:23,575 --> 01:36:26,411
The painting hasn't been seen
since it was sold.
1265
01:36:26,495 --> 01:36:30,415
Once described as the greatest discovery
of the 21st century,
1266
01:36:30,499 --> 01:36:34,127
the mystery surrounding
Salvator Mundi, continues today...