A Superior Salvator Mundi, and 5 Other Masterpieces

If you missed out on your chance to spend $450.3 million at Christie’s In 2017, for the much-hyped Leonardo da Vinci Savior (around 1500), well, that’s good, because now you can spend that money on Agnews in London, which offers something better in my opinion. The gallery’s Cliff Shorer is too modest to reveal his thoughts Christ as Savior (de Ganay version), from ca. 1505-15, better than the one Christie’s sold to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He said the gallery hadn’t put a price on it yet because there wasn’t anything comparable (really? Not even one?).

The painting is an oil on walnut board, just 27 inches tall, and depicts Christ as described in St. John’s Gospel 4:14, which reads, “We have seen and testified that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world.” It is very similar to the $450.3 million artwork (the most expensive piece of art ever sold), with Christ raising his right hand in blessing and holding an orb in his left, but it appears to be in much better condition (after some recent restorations).

When Christie’s sold the work, industry insiders joked Savior At a contemporary art auction, he said that was fair because fifty percent of the paint had been added in the past fifty years. Regarding the attribution of the Agnius example, some experts over the years have referred to it as “Leonardo and his collaborators” or “partially autographed”. The Louvre exhibited it from 2019 to 2020 as “The Faithful Student…and His Possible Interventions”. As Schorer puts it, it has been in the de Ganay family and current owners since it was sold at Sotheby’s in 1999 for a “modest” price. During its life it passed through the hands of the likes of a French baron and collector, Martine de Béhague, who had green hair and hosted Marcel Proust and other writers.

“Why are people so fascinated by these?” said Nynke van der Ven from Vanderven Oriental Art in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, who was one of the founders of TEFAF in 1988. “Well, part of it is that they’re a little weird.”

Van Der Ven stood outside her booth, where a pair of delightfully odd Japanese vases (approximately 1,700 of them), about 20 inches tall, took center stage. Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, collected twenty of these unique pieces for his Japanese-style palace in Dresden. Each piece is blue and white, with a trumpet mouth, gold paint, and a porcelain handle in the shape of an elephant head (recently replaced by the gallery). There is a porcelain pheasant in a gold-painted iron cage. Others from the group now reside in institutions such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.

The pair is priced at 750,000 euros (approximately $864,000 USD).

French Impressionist painter Claude Monet is known for his consecutive paintings of subjects such as haystacks, water lilies, and Rouen Cathedral, capturing the different moods and tones of light throughout the day. Alon Zakaim Fine Art in London offered two works depicting the Gothic church of Vernon set in the landscape in velvety pale blues and purples, showing reflections of the church and sky on the water of the Seine.

“I discovered the strange outline of a church and I began to draw it,” the artist wrote. “It was the beginning of summer…the refreshing foggy mornings were followed by sudden bursts of sunlight, whose fiery rays only slowly dissolved the mist that surrounded every crevice of the building and coated the golden stone with an ideal envelope of steam.” Two moments of the day are vividly captured here.

Both works date from 1894, have passed through the hands of famous galleries such as Durand-Ruel and Knoedler, and have been auctioned many times. The gallery, in its thirteenth year in Maastricht, hopes they won’t separate again and is selling them as a pair for $20 million.

This stunning cylindrical table, nearly four feet tall, was made by Johann Wolfgang Elias Weinsprach from Bruchsal and dates from about 1977. 1770.

Prince-Bishop of Speyer Franz Christoph von Hutten probably commissioned it to decorate his Bruchsal castle, built by the German architect Balthasar Neumann. Its shape and details echo those of the palace, with the top resembling a terrace and wooden inlays imitating the fine tiled floors; the main front panel, with more inlays, shows a view of the castle and its ballroom, with figures standing inside flanked by vases with flowers; the lower panel shows a seemingly more austere scene of people dining. Its luxurious materials include walnut, plum, pear, maple, boxwood and bog oak, with some bone detailing.

The piece was sold by Christian Eduard Franke of Bamberg, Germany, for €265,000 ($305,290).

Eighteenth-century artist Wilhelm Beuoni Knoll created this massive cabinet, more than three feet tall, with a Baroque appearance and incredibly detailed sculptural patterns showing the Crucifixion and Resurrection. The front is decorated with bold Solomonic columns and has two doors behind which are multiple drawers arranged symmetrically. St. Peter stands in the center, holding a book and keys. The archangels Michael and Gabriel appear on the inside of the door.

At the top is the risen Christ, surrounded by the apostles and saints, including the Evangelists and the Virgin and Child.

The piece only came to Amsterdam’s Zebregs & Röell gallery in 2025 and is already on display at a museum in the Netherlands, so owner Dickie Zebregs didn’t talk about the price, but he did mention that internally they like to call the saint São Pedro because of his Brazilian boyfriend Pedro.

A mysterious maker named Edmund Joy created “Mr. Joy’s Surprise” – Queen Anne children’s wardrobe in the form of a house 1709; this five-foot-tall treasure is one of only two known examples, the other now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The central door reveals a space for hanging coats and shirts; the door on the left opens to reveal shelves covered with paper printed with a brickwork pattern; the door on the right opens to reveal hand-painted drawers. Although it looks like a child’s toy, such a delicate item, complete with lock and key, is intended for adult use only.

The architecture of this piece, courtesy of Thomas Coulborn & Sons of the West Midlands, England, resembles 17th-century Dutch houses, a style that also influenced British builders. Kew Palace (1631), London, is also known as the “Dutch Palace”. Curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum say that despite the maker confidently signing his name, nothing is known about him, despite the fact that Edmund Joy is buried in Barton Turf Church in Norfolk. He died single in 1744 at the age of 63.

The work sells for 75,000 euros ($86,400).