Robert B. Simon

Last updated
Robert B. Simon
Education Columbia University (BA, MA, PhD)
Occupation(s)art dealer, art historian
Known forrediscovering Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi

Robert B. Simon (born 27 November 1952, New York) is an American art historian and art dealer most known for rediscovering Leonardo da Vinci's picture, Salvator Mundi . [1] [2]

Contents

Education

Simon received his B.A., M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees, all from Columbia University, [3] where his doctoral thesis focused on Bronzino’s portraits of Cosimo I de’ Medici. [4] [5] [6]

Career in art

After graduating from Columbia, he worked as an art appraiser, researcher, and consultant of Old Master paintings. [1] In 1997, he sold a watercolor by Richard Dadd and opened an art gallery on Upper East Side. [2] [7] Simon has been described as part of an elite group of curators and dealers, known as the "eyes," who carry a unique instinct that can distinguish authentic paintings from copies and spot lost treasures. [8]

Salvator Mundi

In 2005, Simon, with his friend and colleague, art speculator Alexander Parish, acquired Da Vinci's original Salvator Mundi, then thought to be lost, from a New Orleans auction gallery for $1,175. [9] He brought the painting to New York University professor Dianne Dwyer Modestini for a detailed restoration, and sent it to numerous scholars for verification that the painting had belonged to Da Vinci, including Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Keith Christiansen and National Gallery director Nicholas Penny. After it was authenticated, Simon loaned the painting to a few museums before putting it on sale, only to be frustrated by museums that balked at the $100 million price tag. Eventually, Simon sold the painting to Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier for a sum of $80 million, who then sold the painting to Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. [9] [10]

Simon co-authored Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi and the Collecting of Leonardo in the Stuart Courts with art historians Martin Kemp and Margaret Dalivalle. [10] The book was by Oxford University Press in 2019. [11] He was also featured in the 2021 documentary, The Lost Leonardo . [12] [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Salvator Mundi</i> (Leonardo) Painting attributed in whole or part to Leonardo da Vinci

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<i>Interchange</i> (de Kooning) Painting by Willem de Kooning

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<i>Portrait of a Young Man holding a Roundel</i> Painting by Sandro Botticelli

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<i>The Lost Leonardo</i> 2021 documentary film

The Lost Leonardo is an internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Andreas Koefoed, released in 2021. It follows the discovery and successive sales of the painting the Salvator Mundi, allegedly a work by Leonardo da Vinci, an artist for whom there are only a few attributed works in existence. The film chronicles the dramatic increases in the painting's value from its original purchase in 2005 for $1,175 to its auction in 2017 for $450 million, when it became the most expensive artwork ever sold. The use of high-end artwork for hiding wealth, as well as the conflicts created by large commissions and other economic incentives, are explored in the film. It includes interviews with leading art experts and art critics on issues regarding the provenance and authenticity of the work.

References

  1. 1 2 "Meet the man who found the da Vinci that sold for a record US$450 million". South China Morning Post. 2018-05-12. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  2. 1 2 "The Rich Pageantry of the Old Masters Is on Full View at Robert Simon Fine Art". 1stDibs Introspective. 2021-04-02. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  3. ↑ "Bookshelf". Columbia College Today. 2021-09-13. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  4. ↑ "Robert B. Simon '73CC, '75M.A., '76M.Phil, '82 Ph.D. (GSAS) : The Hunt for da Vinci's Lost Salvator MundiColumbia Club of New York". Columbia Club of New York. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  5. ↑ "Finding Salvation: The Saga of da Vinci's Salvator Mundi with Robert Simon". www.sarahlawrence.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  6. ↑ Simon, Robert B. (1983). "Bronzino's Portrait of Cosimo I in Armour". The Burlington Magazine. 125 (966): 527–539. ISSN   0007-6287. JSTOR   881272.
  7. ↑ "Robert Simon Fine Art, New York". Sotheby's. June 12, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  8. ↑ Costamagna, Philippe (2018-08-14). The Eye: An Insider's Memoir of Masterpieces, Money, and the Magnetism of Art. New Vessel Press. ISBN   978-1-939931-70-2.
  9. 1 2 Shaer, Matthew (2019-04-14). "How a $1,000 Art-Auction Bet Turned Into a $450 Million 'Da Vinci'". Vulture. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  10. 1 2 "OXFORD UNRAVELS SALVATOR MUNDI". www.alumni.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  11. ↑ "New book on Leonardo's Salvator Mundi aims to be a definitive study—but it's not the last word on the controversial painting". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  12. ↑ Cascone, Sarah; Kinsella, Eileen (2021-08-27). "7 Unbelievable and Contentious Takeaways From a New Documentary About 'Salvator Mundi,' the $450 Million 'Lost Leonardo'". Artnet News. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  13. ↑ "'Savior For Sale: Da Vinci's Lost Masterpiece?' and Our Obsession With Scandal". Observer. 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
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