{"id":2068207,"date":"2026-07-29T16:39:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2068207"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:39:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:39:59","slug":"an-artist-opened-a-museum-of-salvator-mundi-in-his-brooklyn-lobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2068207","title":{"rendered":"An Artist Opened a Museum of Salvator Mundi in His Brooklyn Lobby"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/salvator-mundi-museum-featured-image.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhen auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen brought down the hammer on Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Salvator Mundi<\/em> (ca. 1500) at Christie\u2019s in 2017, it fetched $450.3 million, making history as the priciest work of art ever sold at a public auction. Sold as the last Leonardo in private hands, it went to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; ever since, it\u2019s been visible in numerous headlines and even in a documentary, but hasn\u2019t gone on public view.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, New York\u2019s Salvator Mundi Museum of Art can\u2019t exactly fill that gap, since it doesn\u2019t have the painting, but the 45-square-foot institution, founded by mischievous artist Elliott Arkin in 2019, does bill itself as having \u201cone of the largest private collections of art and ephemera surrounding the Salvator Mundi story.\u201d (Presumably, it\u2019s the only one of its type, but using superlatives in marketing language can get tricky.) Located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn and visible from the street, the museum is open daily from 9 in the morning to 10 at night, with private tours available on request. The museum even has its own board of advisers, including Hugh Marlais Davies, past director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and artist and ex\u2013Museum of Modern Art curator Robert Storr.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tArkin, per an Artsy <\/em>profile from 2018, has lots of talents, having \u201cworked as a sculptor for animated films like Horton Hears a Who<\/em>, earned his real estate license, collaborated with Vito Acconci on a roving art-education initiative, and served (for a very short time) as the official sculptor for opera superstars Three Tenors.\u201d That article was on the occasion of the artist\u2019s 10-foot-tall sculpture of Pablo Picasso pushing a lawn mower in a Brooklyn park, self-financed to the tune of about $120,000. (The artist told Artnet News<\/em> that it came out of a joke about how the art world has changed so much that if Picasso were around today he would have to mow lawns for a living.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe current exhibition, \u201cThe Orb Show: All About Balls,\u201d centers on the crystal sphere Christ holds in Leonardo\u2019s painting, which Arkin describes as \u201cone of the most debated\u2014and quietly perplexing\u2014details\u201d in the work, since it does not refract light as it would by the laws of physics. The show expands on the concept of the orb with items including a plastic fortune-telling toy and a mirrored disco ball. Past shows include \u201cSalvator Barbi,\u201d comparing the Leonardo masterpiece with the massively popular Mattel doll, and \u201cThe Art of Rescue,\u201d that compares the restoration of artworks and the rescue of animals.<\/p>\n

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The entrance to the Salvator Mundi Museum of Art.<\/span>Made with Google AI<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tNo museum would be complete without a gift shop, and this one is a doozy. In a way, it may be the heart of the project\u2014the museum\u2019s logo, after all, is an S with the Mundi M superimposed, so that it resembles a dollar sign. On offer are a T shirt, women\u2019s underwear, and a Shayla scarf with the image of the work, as well as Mundi-themed wines, tomato sauce, coffee, \u201cenhancement supplements,\u201d and more. If you\u2019re hoping to snag some Mundi cryptocurrency, you\u2019re out of luck, as that apparently sold out in 2020, back when these things were red-hot.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor a few dollars more (to be precise, $450, a millionth of the price of Leonardo\u2019s panel), you can also get framed interpretations of the Leonardo masterpiece in the style of artists like Jeff Koons (the orb is a blue reflecting ball), Marcel Duchamp (with a scribbled goatee on Christ\u2019s face and the caption L.M.F.A.O.), and Richard Prince (an appropriated Instagram post of the painting with a comment from Prince reading \u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between Jesus and a picture of Jesus? It only takes one nail to hang a picture\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother offering in the shop alludes to the fact that Leonardo\u2019s painting was extensively restored by esteemed conservator Diane Modestini after being bought from an estate sale for a song by dealers Alexander Parrish and Robert Simon. Insiders quipped that Christie\u2019s inclusion of the painting in a modern and contemporary art sale was only fitting since 50 percent of the paint had been added in the last 50 years. Also for the price of $450 comes a Salvator Mundi DIY restoration kit, in an edition of, you guessed it, 450. \u201cNow you can restore your very own Salvator Mundi painting,\u201d says the promotional text. \u201cIf you do a really good job, who knows what it might sell for?\u201d<\/p>\n

ARTnews <\/em>can reveal that to this impressive portfolio of products, Arkin will on August 3 unveil Salvator Mundi\u2013themed cannabis. According to marketing materials, it promises to put the \u201chigh\u201d back in \u201cHigh Renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The museum will soon offer Salvator Mundi cannabis.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAsked in a phone interview what made Salvator Mundi <\/em>such a smash with the public, Arkin said, \u201cIt was a perfect storm. You\u2019re bringing Jesus, Leonardo and the contemporary art world together. The idea of finding that lost treasure is universal, whether finding the Holy Grail or finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or finding Jesus. This is such a human story, I thought, it can be a brand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tReferring to Nike sneakers, he went on, \u201cWhen you want to buy running shoes, you buy the goddess of victory. If you buy the Salvator Mundi coffee, you\u2019re discovering a great cup of coffee you never knew of!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBin Salman, Arkin noted, is rumored to be building a museum around the painting. He\u2019s already looking forward to the marketing campaign for the future institution, with, of course, a bit of a skeptical eye. \u201cYou know how toys make movies to sell more toys? Those who are cynical about museums to begin with might say that all art museums are set up to help board members promote their art collection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOf course,\u201d he added slyly, \u201cI don\u2019t share that view.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/salvator-mundi-museum-featured-image.jpeg?w=1024″] When auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen brought down the hammer on Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Salvator Mundi (ca. 1500) at Christie\u2019s in 2017, it fetched $450.3 million, making history as the priciest work of art ever sold at a public auction. Sold as the last Leonardo in private hands, it went to Saudi Crown Prince […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2068207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2068207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2068207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2068207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2068207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}