When Jussi Pylkkänen brought down the hammer on Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi on 16th November 2017 in New York City, it was an audacious act of death or glory. Onlookers were amazed, shocked and delighted: Christie’s had reclaimed its position as the number one auction house and the art market had made another great leap forward, with dizzying rewards. t was a high risk strategy and even on the day of the sale, there was speculation that the picture would not reach its guarantee of $90,000,000 USD, let alone the eventual hammer price of $400,000,000 USD.Read more