LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A
recently rediscovered Leonardo Da Vinci painting valued at $192 million may
find a new home at the Dallas Museum of Art, a spokesperson for the museum said
on Friday.
The "Salvator Mundi"
("Savior of the World") is currently at the Dallas Museum of Art and
the museum has been "actively exploring the possibility of acquiring it,"
communications officer Jill Bernstein told Reuters
The painting, an image of
Christ giving his blessing to the world with his right hand and holding a
crystal orb in the left, was among the highlights of the "Leonardo Da
Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan" exhibition at the National Gallery
in London last year.
The Dallas Museum's interest
was first reported by Art in America magazine, which said the museum's new
director Maxwell Anderson may be looking for "a destination painting"
to attract crowds.
Da Vinci's painting, dated
around the early 1500s, measures 26 by 18.5 inches. Commissioned by Louis XII
of France in 1506, it was once documented as part of England's King Charles I's
art collection in 1649, then auctioned off and forgotten.
The oil-on-wood panel, with the
image distorted over time by overpainting and layers of dirt and varnish, was
sold in 1958 for as little as 45 pounds ($70) when it was considered to be the
work of one of Da Vinci's students called Giovanni Boltraffio.
In 2005, it was taken to New
York art historian Robert Simon, and eventually an extensive restoration was
performed. Experts then noticed some of Da Vinci's hallmarks in the work -
especially the colors and the reflection of light from the orb - and the piece
was declared a genuine work by the Italian Renaissance artist.