Artprice confirms the contents of its press release of 8
December and, today (9 December), adds further explanations
concerning this historic sale:
Artprice Exclusive - Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi at the Louvre Abu
Dhabi is likely the result of a geopolitical mediation, involving
Anglo-Saxon investment funds, financial firewalls and Mohammad Bin
Salman (the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia), who actually bridled the
final price paid. The artwork is apparently being insured for
around 700 million dollars.
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the United
Arab Emirates, broke off all diplomatic ties with Qatar, which in
recents years has established itself as a leading force on the
global art market via the Qatar Museum Authority (Sheikh Hamad Bin
Khalifa Al Thani).
Meanwhile, in accordance with standard practice, the Vatican
Museums (12 in total) extensively studied the Salvator Mundi
opportunity and particularly how to interpret Da Vinci's Christ
iconography.
The series of differents communiqués on the subject by the
different protagonists in the sale - each contradicting the
previous one - suggests that the painting is theologically
explosive, and it is clear that, in the end, the different
protagonists preferred to avoid the topic, considering the
theological "hotness" as potentially damaging to the success of the
sale.
The Salvator Mundi painting may also offend Saudi sensibilities:
human portraits and especially portraits of religious figures are
forbidden under the strict Saudi brand of Islam, and this one
raises particular issues because it depicts Jesus as "Savior of the
World" (dixit The New York Times).
In the past, the Vatican Museums always had a clear right to
examine, validate and, where appropriate, acquire historical
artworks that played a significant role in the propagation of the
Christian faith. Although this RC monopoly has gradually receded,
it remains valid in the 21st century for all major work of art that
depict the symbols of the Christian faith; and the Jesus Christ
painted by Leonardo Da Vinci as "Savior of the World" is naturally
one such representation.
Artprice can therefore confirm that the sale of the Da Vinci's
« Salvator Mundi » did indeed involve
geo-political mediation as well as diplomatic management of its
religious and theological implications. The final outcome, with the
painting being exhibited at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, is therefore
the result of all these factors and the insured value of the
artwork at 700 million dollars most likely corresponds perfectly to
the painting's value in a Museum Industry ® context.
For further information, read our 7 Dec. 2017 release
https://www.actusnews.com/fr/ARTPRICE/cp/2017/12/07/news-of-da-vinci_s-salvator-mundi-being-exhibited-at-the-abu-dhabi-louvre-and-soon-at-the-paris-louvre-entirely-endorses
News of Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi being exhibited at the Abu
Dhabi Louvre -and soon at the Paris Louvre- entirely endorses
Artprice's Museum Industry®
Having provided an exclusive explanation of the sophisticated
financial arrangements behind the recent acquisition of Leonardo Da
Vinci's Salvator Mundi -an explanation that was picked up by
Agence France Presse today-, Artprice has highlighted a
highly sophisticated economic model.
The arrangements for the acquisition of the Da Vinci masterpiece
correspond perfectly to the Museum Industry® model that Artprice
conceptualized in 2005 and has taught ever since.
According to thierry Ehrmann, All the of the world's major
museums hold accounts with Artprice, including of course the
Louvre. The United Arab Emirates, with its capital Abu Dhabi, is
one of the top 10 most active countries accessing Artprice's
databases..."
Here's the deal: the Paris Louvre sells a "Louvre" franchise to
Abu Dhabi until 2037. The latter pays a total of 400 million euros
to the Paris Louvre for the right to use the Louvre name. The
latter, accompanied by 13 French museums, convenants to lend
artworks to Abu Dhabi - 10 museums have already lent more than 350
artworks.
These arrangements shows the Museum Industry® collaborating
within a network, using investment vehicles and complex legal
structures.
They unambiguously prove the emergence in the twenty-first
century of a new economic sector - the Museum Industry® - exactly
as Artprice described it back in 2005.
In short, we have a classic business model with inflows
(ticketing and derivative income) and outflows - operating license
costs plus acquisition costs. in this case, the price of Da Vinci's
Salvator Mundi, a price predicted by Artprice three months prior to
its sale.
The 450 million dollars paid for the painting is the result of
an intelligent investment decision based on the Louvre museum's
annual operating income (ebitda) and not on some wild extravagance.
Those who believe it is the latter have failed to understand that
the Museum Industry® is now the principal structure of the global
art market.
This structure is driving art prices up by creating scarcity on
the three principal segments of the Art Market: Old Masters, Modern
Art and Contemporary Art, and we see that within this industry
configuration, the resale of a "major tangible asset" can have an
immediate impact on ticket revenue.
Artprice - which will be launching its own museum ranking index
(Artmuseum100®) in early 2018 - highlights the transformation of
museums, whose clientele has grown tenfold in the last 30
years.
Artprice and its econometrics department has been collaborating
with Twitter for two years on a giant sample of 39 million
identified followers with links to the world's 100 principal Fine
Art museums.
According to thierry Ehrmann, This massive expansion of the
global Museum Industry® goes hand-in-hand with a major soft-power
competition between the world's nations, particularly its major
powers (China / US) and the Gulf States. Indeed, soft-power rivalry
is leading the art market inexorably towards spectacular new
auction results. In our well-documented view, we are likely to see
results around the billion dollar threshold by 2020.
As the world leader in Art Market information, Artprice can only
benefit from this growth of the Art Market, driven essentially by
the increasing power of the Museum Industry®.
For a reminder of the Museum Industry® conceptualized by
Artprice, please read this press release:
https://www.actusnews.com/fr/ARTPRICE/cp/2017/11/19/artprice-the-auction-record-for-salvator-mundi-by-leonardo-da-vinci-proves-that-the-museum-industry-reg-is-completely
www.artprice.com Copyright thierry Ehrmann
1987/2017
About Artprice:
Artprice celebrates its 20th birthday, editorial by thierry
Ehrmann, founder and CEO of Artprice.
https://www.actusnews.com/fr/ARTPRICE/cp/2017/10/04/artprice-celebrates-its-20th-birthday-editorial-by-thierry-ehrmann-founder-and-ceo-of-artprice
Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long
only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF.
Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index
databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results
covering more than 700,000 artists. Artprice Images(R) gives
unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a
library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year
1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art
historians.
Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information
from 6,300 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art
market trends for the world's principal news agencies and
approximately 7,200 international press publications. For its
4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading
Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is
preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled
(scientific national French label).
Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2016 published
last March
2017: http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/rama2016_en.pdf
Artprice's Contemporary Art Market Annual Report for 2016 - free
access
at https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2016
The text presented hereafter is a translation of Arte Creative's
online presentation: ARTE: A gigantic Christmas tree in the guise
of a butt plug, a machine that defecates five-star meals, an icon
immersed in urine and staged corpses - subversive, trash,
provocative or insulting? Thierry Ehrmann, the man behind The Abode
of Chaos dixit "The New York Times", an artist and the founder of
Artprice, is the mouthpiece for scandal and discloses the workings
of the most striking controversies in contemporary art. And scandal
sells. 9 episodes are
online: http://www.arte.tv/guide/en/weekly-highlight
Artprice's press
releases: http://serveur.serveur.com/Press_Release/pressreleaseen.htm and https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom
News Artmarket:
http://twitter.com/artpricedotcom
https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom
https://plus.google.com/+Artpricedotcom/posts
http://artmarketinsight.wordpress.com/
Discover the Alchemy and the universe of
Artprice http://web.artprice.com/video, which headquarters are
the famous Museum of Contemporary Art, the Abode of Chaos
http://goo.gl/zJssd https://vimeo.com/124643720
The Contemporary Art Museum The Abode of Chaos on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999
The Abode of Chaos/Demeure du Chaos Contemporary Art Museum by
thierry Ehrmann,author, sculptor, artist,
photograph https://www.flickr.com/photos/home_of_chaos/sets/72157
Attachments:
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/701751d9-7d9d-45dc-a916-263c24b6e104