Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Was Buyer of Record-Breaking da Vinci

He used a proxy to purchase the 500-year-old "Salvator Mundi."

Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi Arabia Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the G20 opening ceremony at the Hangzhou International Expo Center on September 4, 2016 in Hangzhou, China. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri - Pool/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the bidder who paid a record-breaking $450.3 million for “Salvator Mundi,” a Leonardo da Vinci portrait of Jesus Christ. Prince Mohammed, known as MBS, was identified as the buyer in U.S. intelligence reports. He has tried to portray himself as a reformer determined to root out corruption in the country. Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed, a distant relative of the prince, was the nominal winner of the auction, but sources said it is a “fact that this deal was done via a proxy.”

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