Saudi Crown Prince Salman is said to have been offered to exchange da Vinci’s $450 million masterpiece, Salvatore Mundi, for a yacht owned by UAE’s prince Zayed, according to reports.
The Saudi royal is said to have decided to swap the painting he had previously purchased at an auction last year following uproar in Saudi Arabia after a report by the New York Times revealed the crown prince was the mystery buyer of the recently uncovered masterpiece by famed Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci.
Bowing to pressure at home after reactions on the price of the painting, Salman was compelled to hand over the da Vinci painting to the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi.
In exchange, Salman will be gifted the yacht called “Topaz” that was originally owned by Mansour Bin Zayed, the brother of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, valued at $450 million.
“Topaz” is one of the world’s longest and well-known yachts. Websites specializing in such luxury vessels list it at 147 meters long, with 26 bedrooms able to accommodate 52 people.
A report by the New York Times originally claimed the buyer was Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al-Farhan Al-Saud, suggesting that he may have bought it for Bin Salman, which was denied by Saudi media at the time.
The UAE’s branch of the Louvre then announced that the Savior of the World had been bought for the museum and that it would be displayed there. This pushed the NYT to confirm that the real buyer was Bin Salman. The newspaper pointed out, “U.S. officials who had access to intelligence reports and Arab officials, who knew about the details of the purchase of the painting, confirmed once again that Mohammad Bin Salman is the real buyer of the painting.”
