The Louvre Abu Dhabi tweeted out a very simple message today:
“Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi is coming to #LouvreAbuDhabi.”
The museum’s official Twitter account posted the message in three languages: English, Arabic, and French.
An odd way for such a big piece of news to be revealed. The somewhat contested painting has been the subject of intense speculation since its sale at Christie’s two weeks ago to a mystery buyer made it the most expensive painting EVER.
Following the Louvre’s initial tweet, Christie’s retweeted the message, adding their own:
“Congratulations — the Salvator Mundi is going to its new home the @LouvreAbuDhabi.”
All a Christie’s spokesperson would say was,
“We are delighted that the work will again be on public view. We have no further information.”
The Louvre nor the Louvre Abu Dhabi replied immediately when asked for further details on the social media posts. Last week, Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez set the art world rumor mill abuzz with his comment to a radio interviewer in France suggesting he was looking forward to seeing Salvator Mundi hanging alongside Mona Lisa soon. At the time of that story, a Louvre spokesperson told artnet News:
“The Louvre is currently working on the list of the loans for the Leonardo da Vinci 2019 exhibition. It is too early to communicate on that list.”
The Louvre Abu Dhabi opened last month just days before the Salvator Mundi sale.
(via ArtNet)
