Salvator Mundi (ca. 1499–1510), the world’s most expensive painting, is being turned into an NFT.
The painting, which was controversially attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, broke auction records when it sold in 2017 for $450.3 million at Christie’s New York. The portrait shows Christ holding a crystal orb.
The digital asset platform ElmonX will mint the NFT in collaboration with the image licensing company Bridgeman Images. Terms of the sale are expected to be announced on August 12.
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“[As] the world’s leading specialists in licensing fine art, cultural, and historical media for reproduction, [we] are delighted to collaborate with ElmonX, experts at the forefront of NFT art creation,” Bridgeman Images said in a statement. The partnership offers a “unique and exclusive opportunity to create high-quality NFTs based on Bridgeman Images’ vast collection.”
Bridgeman collaborated earlier with ElmonX to mint such NFTs as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (1503), Van Gogh’s Starry Night (1889), Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker (1904), and Claude Monet’s Nymphéas (1907).
According to the ElmonX website, there were 330 editions of the Mona Lisa NFT sold at £150 ($191). Additionally, 10 editions of a bundled NFT and print version of the Mona Lisa were sold for £900 ($1,144). One of them was resold on the NFT marketplace OpenSea for 3.7 ETH ($6,764) just last week.
This project comes as the NFT market sees a downturn in sales that’s increasing tension between traders and creators.