The mystery of who bought a Leonardo da Vinci painting for $450 million has been solved

The "Salvator Mundi" painting.
(Image credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

The art world was stunned last month when an unknown person bid a record $450.3 million for a Leonardo da Vinci painting of Christ called "Salvator Mundi," and now that the buyer's identity has been revealed, they're still surprised.

The painting is now owned by Saudi Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, The New York Times reports, and it will be on display at the new Louvre branch in Abu Dhabi. He is not known for being an art collector or incredibly wealthy, and documents viewed by the Times show that he was such a non-entity in the art scene that Christie's had to quickly figure out right before the auction if he was eligible to bid. Prince Bader is close to Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who recently had hundreds of the country's princes, businessmen, and government officials arrested, accusing them of having made billions illicitly.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.