da Vinci Painting Sells for Record $450,000,000

NEW YORK (AP) —A New York auction house official says the sale of a rare painting by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci for a record $450 million (380 million euros) is “an honor that comes around once in a lifetime.”

The painting shows Christ holding a crystal orb and is called “Salvator Mundi,” Latin for “Savior of the World.” It sold at Christie’s auction house Wednesday.

Christie’s co-chairman of post-war and contemporary art Loic Gouzer describes the artwork as a “painting of the most iconic figure in the world by the most important artist of all time.”

The highest price paid for a work of art at auction had been $179 million (152 million euros), for Pablo Picasso’s painting “Women of Algiers (Version O)” in May 2015, also at Christie’s in New York.

The highest known sale price for any artwork had been $300 million (253 million euros) for the private sale of Willem de Kooning’s painting “Interchange” in September 2015.