Leonardo da Vinci painting sells for world record price of $US450m

A rare Leonardo da Vinci painting has been sold for a staggering price at a frenzied New York auction, obliterating previous records.

A painting thought by scholars to be one of only a few by Leonardo da Vinci to have survived the centuries since his death has been auctioned for a world record price of $US450m ($A592m) at Christie’s in New York.

The painting, which the auction house said dates back to around 1500, sold after 18 minutes of frenzied bidding in an historic sale, obliterating previous records for artworks sold at auction or privately.

The highest price paid for a work of art at auction had been $US179.4 million for Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O) in May 2015, also at Christie’s in New York.

The highest known sale price for any artwork had been $US300 million for Willem de Kooning’s Interchange in September 2015, which was sold privately.

The hammer price reached $US400m, but including the buyer’s commission, the as yet unnamed purchaser forked out $US450,312,500.

Art lovers had lined up by the thousands at special presale exhibitions in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York to see the only work by the Renaissance master in private hands.

The 500-year-old oil painting depicting Christ holding a crystal orb, called Salvator Mundi, Italian for “Savior of the World,” is one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo known to exist, according to Christie’s.

The painting Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci at Christie's New York Auction House.

“I can hardly convey how exciting it is for those of us directly involved in its sale,” said Christie’s specialist Alan Wintermute. “The word masterpiece barely begins to convey the rarity, importance and sublime beauty of Leonardo’s painting.”

Wintermute called it “the Holy Grail of old master paintings.”

A backer of the auction guaranteed a bid of at least $US100 million. Experts had expected it might be worth more, except for its generally poor state of preservation and lingering questions about its authenticity.

The 26-inch-tall (66-centimetre-tall) painting dates from around 1500 and shows Christ dressed in Renaissance-style robes, his right hand raised in blessing as his left hand holds a crystal sphere.

The painting’s history is as mysterious as Jesus’ enigmatic gaze, which invites comparison to a better-known Leonardo work, the Mona Lisa.

Salvator Mundi was owned by King Charles I of England in the mid-1600s and was auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham in 1763.

It then disappeared from view until 1900, when it resurfaced and was acquired by a British collector. At the time, it was thought to be a work of a Leonardo disciple, rather than by the master himself.

Bidding representatives react after the Leonardo da Vinci sold for a world record price.

The painting was sold again in 1958 and then acquired in 2005, badly damaged and partly painted-over, by a consortium of art dealers who paid less than $US10,000.

The art dealers restored the painting extensively and documented its authenticity as a work by Leonardo.

The work’s current owner is Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought it in 2013 for $US127.5 million in a private sale that became the subject of a continuing lawsuit.

Christie’s says a majority of scholars believe it is a work by Leonardo, though some critics have questioned that determination while others have said it was so extensively restored that it is probably more akin to a copy than an original. In New York, where no museum owns a Leonardo, art lovers lined up outside Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters to view Salvator Mundi. Inside, Christ’s face seemed to light up the darkened gallery. Svetla Nikolova, who is from Bulgaria but lives in New York, called the painting “spectacular.” “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she said. “It should be seen. It’s wonderful it’s in New York. I’m so lucky to be in New York at this time.”

Christie's auctioneer Jussi Pylkannen, taps the gavel as he ends the bidding.

AP