Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi Becomes the World's Most Expensive Painting

Paintings are works of art that often attract a lot of attention. Most painting enthusiasts will compete to collect paintings by masters, even if it means spending a significant amount of money.

According to artnews.com, here are the 5 most expensive paintings ever sold at auction in the world.

1. Salvator Mundi

This is currently the world's most expensive painting, Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, priced at US$ 450.3 million or Rp 6.4 trillion (exchange rate 14,232). This painting depicts Jesus Christ wearing Renaissance-style robes while holding a crystal ball. Currently, the Salvator Mundi painting is owned by Prince Bader bin Abdullah, a member of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family.

2. Pendant Portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit

This painting, priced at US$ 195 million or Rp 2.7 trillion, depicts portraits of the Soolmans & Coppit couple, painted by Rembrandt Van Rijn in 1634. The painting is located at the Rijksmuseum, where ownership is shared with the Louvre. This painting was previously owned by the Rothschild family.

3. Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel

This classic painting by Italian painter Sandro Botticelli sold at auction for Rp 92.2 million or Rp 1.3 trillion. Young Man Holding a Roundel was painted in the 1470s and became one of the *masterpiece* sales at the Sotheby's Masters Week auction in New York.

4. Massacre of the Innocents

This painting by Peter Paul Rubens, priced at US$ 76.5 million or Rp 1.08 trillion, depicts a biblical scene of the massacre in Bethlehem. This painting is estimated to have been created in 1610 and was missing for 129 years.

5. Lot and His Daughters

This painting, also by Peter Paul Rubens, sold for US$ 58.2 million or Rp 828 billion. This painting was previously part of the collections of famous figures such as Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I and John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough.

(Read More: Louvre Museum Had the Highest Number of Visitors in the World in 2019)