Mystery Solved: Saudi Prince Is Buyer Of $450M DaVinci Painting
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, 12-18-2017 at 10:40 AM (1035 Views)
The mystery over who paid a record-breaking $450 million for Leonardo da Vinci's painting Salvator Mundi at an auction last month appears to have been solved. It turns out it's Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
That's according to U.S. intelligence officials who keep a close eye on the kingdom's young and powerful crown prince, says the Wall Street Journal.
The winning bid in the November 15 auction at Christie's in New York was made anonymously by phone using a Christie's representative. The New York Times reported earlier that documents showed another member of the royal family, Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, placed the final bid. But intelligence officials say Bader was just a proxy for crown prince Mohammed.
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