Last week several news outlets reported, based on a French TV documentary, that the world’s most expensive artwork wasn’t in the Louvre’s big 2019 Leonardo show because Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (reputedly the work’s buyer) was angry that the Louvre’s curators refused to guarantee that it was Leonardo’s work. Now David D. Kirkpatrick and Elaine Sciolino report that French experts did, in fact, determine that Salvator Mundi is genuine — and that the reason that the Saudis didn’t let the painting be included in the Louvre’s exhibition was rather more petty. – The New York Times
