Louvre Abu Dhabi sets Da Vinci unveiling for September

In this file photo taken on October 24, 2017 Christie’s employees pose in front of a painting entitled Salvator Mundi by Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci at a photocall at Christie’s auction house in central London. (AFP)

DUBAI: The Louvre Abu Dhabi said Wednesday it will unveil its most prized acquisition on Sept. 18 — a very rare painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci that was bought for a record $450 million last year.
The “Salvator Mundi,” a portrait of Jesus Christ painted in 1500, was the only one of the fewer than 20 paintings believed to be the work of the famed Renaissance Old Master still in private hands when it went under the hammer at Christie’s in November.
It was only six years ago that it was declared authentic after long being dismissed as a copy by one of Da Vinci’s students.
“Lost and hidden for so long in private hands, Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece is now our gift to the world,” the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, Mohamed Khalifa Al-Mubarak, said in a statement announcing the public unveiling.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi has kept tight-lipped over the identity of the painting’s buyer, saying only that the emirate’s Department of Culture and Tourism had “acquired” it.