After 19 minutes of dueling, with four bidders on the telephone and one in the room, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” sold on Wednesday night for $450.3 million with fees, shattering the high for any work of art sold at auction. It far surpassed Picasso’s “Women of Algiers,” which fetched $179.4 million at Christie’s in May 2015. The buyer was not immediately disclosed. The painting was dismissed as a copy and sold for only $60 in 1958, acquired by a group of art dealers for $10,000 in 2005 and finally after being completely restored and authenticated as an Original Da Vinci, sold for $450.3 million.

Source: NY Times