Crown Prince Mohammed told Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princetown University, said he wanted to "build a very large museum in Riyadh," the Saudi capital, and have the painting as its “anchor object” that would attract millions of tourists. He also told him that he wishes to replicate the Louvre which houses the Mona Lisa, another one of Da Vinci's pieces.
Haykel said that bin Salman's purchase of the piece "was also a deliberate challenge to Saudi Arabia’s conservative Islamic leadership," per The Times. "The idea was that you would have a painting by Leonardo that would hang in that museum and help attract tourists,” Haykel said. “You could also put another spin on [it] and say this is one of the most important paintings in the western world of Jesus and we own it."
The crown prince's purchase of Salvator Mundi has never been officially confirmed and rumors that it has been hanging in his palace or yacht have been dispelled by the Saudi culture minister, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud. There has also been a discrepancy historically in how much involvement da Vinci had with it. Some speculate it may have been painted by his students.
The 2017 bidding war for the painting started at $100 million and the final price of $450 million far surpassed the previous record for a public sale of any artwork. It also had an extremely sharp increase in value in the last 2 decades. It had been purchased in the United States in 2005 for $1,175.
