The crowd gasped Wednesday night at Christie's auction house in New York City as the bidding war breached the $200 million mark for the Leonardo da Vinci painting Salvator Mundi. At $300 million, those in the auction room broke in scattered applause; the whole thing was streamed online with a slight delay for the world to watch.
The masterwork painting — one of around 16 verified da Vinci originals in existence — sold Wednesday to an anonymous buyer for a hammer price of $400 million and another $50.3 million in fees, making it the most expensive painting ever sold in history.
The seller is Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, an avid art collector who purchased Salvator Mundi for $127.5 million in May 2013.
A Willem de Kooning oil painting previously held the record for the most expensive painting sold. Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin purchased de Kooning’s Interchange from media mogul David Geffen, also a billionaire, in September 2015 for a reported $300 million in a private sale.

Rybolovev is the world's 190th richest man with a net worth of $7.4 billion, according to Forbes. He is the 15th richest man in Russia.


Salvator Mundi, named "The Last da Vinci" by Christie's, is the first and only da Vinci painting to be verified as an original in the 21st century. The last da Vinci painting verified as a master original was Benois Madonna in 1909.
It is up to the buyer to reveal his or her identity. As of now, the bidder remains anonymous.
"The scope of potential buyers is a bit more unknown for this piece," said Diana Wierbicki, partner and global head of art law at Withers Bergman L.L.P. "What's nice about an auction is you're garnering a lot of attention for it, and you could get a really great energy from bidders that you might not even know were interested."

Reference:
http://tutorafrique.com/docs/leonardo-da-vincis-salvator-mundi-last-original-painting-sells-for-400-million-by-a-russian-billionaire-named-dmitry-rybolovle/

where is the painting?

Source:http://tutorafrique.com/docs/leonardo-da-vincis-salvator-mundi-last-original-painting-sells-for-400-million-by-a-russian-billionaire-named-dmitry-rybolovle/