The Salvator Mundi? it's not all Leonardo's hand

Salvador Mundi, still the most expensive painting sold at auction in history, is not all Leonardo's brush according to a couple of new studies reported in the latest issue of "The Art Newspaper". Studies, one of them by Louvre experts, agree that the picture was initially conceived as a head and shoulders, with the right arm and right hand raised in blessing painted later. An independent investigation signed by computer scientist Steven Frank and his wife, art historian Andrea Frank, goes as far as to argue that these parts are clearly "not Leonardo's". Using image recognition and classification algorithms known as 'convolutional neural networks', the scholars determined that only the head and torso of Christ are presumably Leonardo's hand, not the hand and arm. The result of the research will be published in one of the next issues of the MIT magazine "Leonardo" dedicated to the intersection between art and technology. The examination of the Louvre is more indulgent as it agrees that the blessing arm was made later without excluding that it was Leonardo who painted it. Museum experts note that the upper section of the right hand, unlike other elements, was painted directly against the black background of the painting, demonstrating that "Leonardo did not plan to paint it at the beginning of the project". The Parisian museum's investigation dates back to 2018: it should have been published in a book whose release was canceled when the Salvator Mundi loan to the museum was canceled without a reason being given. The article of "The Art Newspaper" is based on the examination of unpublished copies of the volume. Long considered a copy of a lost painting, Salvator Mundi was bought at Christie's auction in 2017 for $ 450 million from an anonymous buyer who turned out to be a friend and ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A month after the sale, the Abu Dhabi ministry of culture had agreed to lend it to the satellite headquarters of the Louvre in the emirate but that project ended without explanation on a dead end amid rumors that the Leonardo was placed on the "thousand and one nights" yacht "by Salman.