The Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi was once dismissed as a worthless copy. After being scrubbed of centuries of heavy overpainting, it fetched 450 million dollars, though experts still fight over how much of it he actually touched.

This mysterious portrait of Christ was lost for centuries and suffered from clumsy repairs that completely obscured the master's hand. When it resurfaced, the restoration process was so aggressive that some art historians argue the original brushstrokes have been permanently compromised. Despite the intense controversy regarding its true origins, it remains the most expensive artwork ever purchased at a public auction. The painting continues to spark debates about whether a genius's unfinished work remains a masterpiece.