A Saudi prince bought the painting to hang in the recently opened Louvre Abu Dhabi. The painting has yet to appear there, leading some to call it “missing.” The Salvator Mundi was not included in the Paris Louvre’s massive Da Vinci exhibition celebrating the five-hundredth anniversary of his death. That is likely because the museum would have labeled the painting as being from the workshop of the master, rather than his alone, which would have decreased its value.
Like the Salvator Mundi, not all experts are in agreement about the newly discovered drawing. Di Maria believes it may be a preparatory sketch for the true Salvator Mundi, a work that remains lost.