Not long ago I posted a piece about art scams, stimulated by the experience of a friend of mine who had been the victim of an attempt to defraud him. My friend is a relatively unknown figure in the art world. It was (in an odd way) rather gratifying to read in this week’s London Review of Books about possible fraud in the art world on a totally different scale.
The article by Charles Hope (an influential figure in British and probably international art circles) reviews three recent books about Leonardo da Vinci, in anticipation of the large current exhibition of this artist’s work in The Louvre. A good deal of his comment focuses on Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi which, despite the attention it attracted a few years back, will not be on display in Paris.
I don’t know whether you remember the controversy around this painting, but it was “discovered” in 2005, when it sold for $1,175, and was authenticated shortly afterwards as a genuine Leonardo original. Under that description it then sold in 2017 for $450 million. The purchaser is not generally known, but is believed to be possibly a member of the Saudi royal family. Now, according to Hope, considerable doubts surround the earlier authentication of the picture as a Leonardo. There is a strong possibility that somebody has been taken for a ride on a scale that dwarfs to an unbelievable degree the unfortunate experience of my friend.* I’m no expert on the provenance of Renaissance artworks, but I must say that I find Hope’s article convincing. Wow!
I don’t usually indulge in schadenfreude, and this isn’t really the spirit of this piece. The point I would prefer to make is that there is only one reason why anybody ought to but a work of art, and that is because it really speaks to them personally at some profound level. The notion of art as an “investment” on the same level as stock in some industrial venture I find abhorrent. If that is the game, then all I would want to do is to repeat the warning given to all potential investors. “Remember that the value of shares can go down as well as up.” I continue to be angry about the attempt to defraud my friend: but I can’t find it in me to get very exercised about the possibly unfortunate purchaser of Salvator Mundi. The market, after all, is no respecter of persons.
*I have to confess that a part of me actually hopes that this is the case!