NEW YORK (Dispatches) – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the actual buyer of a painting by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci that sold for a record-breaking $450 million at auction last November, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The crown prince, known by his initials MBS, used an intermediary to buy the much-sought-after painting of Christ, "Salvator Mundi,” the newspaper reported, citing U.S. intelligence and other unnamed sources.
The son of Saudi King Salman is seen to be progressively consolidating his power, and is the architect of a wide-ranging plan dubbed Vision 2030 to bring social and economic change to his country’s oil-dependent economy.
The painting – one of fewer than 20 works generally accepted as being by Da Vinci, according to auction house Christie’s – was bought by little-known Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, reports claimed.
The Journal reported that Bader was the nominal buyer, but said MBS was identified in U.S. intelligence reports as the true owner.
"He is a proxy for MBS,” an unnamed figure in the Persian Gulf art world told the Journal.
The purchase came just days after Riyadh launched a crackdown on more than 200 of the richest Saudi princes, businessmen and government officials on the orders of Saudi Arabia’s so-called Anti-Corruption Committee headed by bin Salman.
Famous billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal was among the notable figures detained as part of the purge.
Reports revealed last month that Saudi Arabia was using U.S. mercenaries to torture the detainees, with MBS himself conducting some of the interrogations.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, told The Journal that "the image of the crown prince spending that much money to buy a painting when he’s supposed to be leading an anti-corruption drive is staggering.”
On Tuesday, the Saudi attorney general said the majority of the high-profile figures in detention had agreed to cash settlements in exchange for their freedom.
Saudi Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, a son of the former Saudi king, had been freed a week earlier after reaching a $1-billion "acceptable settlement agreement” with the kingdom’s authorities.