‘Salvator Mundi’ buyer named new Saudi Culture Minister
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a number of royal decrees, including naming a young prince who is close to his son and heir as head of a newly established Culture Ministry early Saturday.
The new Minister of Culture, Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, was identified last year by the New York Times as the mystery buyer of a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus, the most expensive painting ever sold at auction.
The Wall Street Journal reported the prince had acted as a proxy for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he purchased the “Salvator Mundi” painting. The Saudi Embassy in Washington said Prince Bader purchased the painting on behalf of the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.
Prince Bader is a contemporary of the 32-year-old crown prince and the two attended King Saud University in Riyadh around the same time, according to the New York Times. In 2015, Prince Bader was appointed as chairman of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, which publishes major Arabic newspapers and which had long been under the control of King Salman’s branch of the family.