Robert B. Simon (born 27 November 1952, New York) is an American art historian and art dealer most known for rediscovering

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

's painting ''

Salvator Mundi , Latin for Saviour of the World, is a subject in iconography depicting Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding an orb (frequently surmounted by a cross), known as a . The latter symbolizes the Earth, and the whol ...

''.

Education

Simon received his B.A., M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees, all from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where his doctoral thesis focused on

Bronzino Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italians, Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or r ...

’s portraits of Cosimo I de’ Medici.

Career in art

After graduating from Columbia, he worked as an art appraiser, researcher, and consultant of

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

paintings. In 1997, he sold a watercolor by

Richard Dadd Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule ...

and opened an art gallery on

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

. 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.

''Salvator Mundi''

In 2005, Simon, with his friend and colleague, art speculator Alexander Parish, acquired Da Vinci's original

, then thought to be lost, from a

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

auction gallery for $1,175. He brought the painting to

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

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 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

curator Keith Christiansen and

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

director

Nicholas Penny Sir Nicholas Beaver Penny (born 21 December 1949) is a British art historian. From 2008 to 2015 he was director of the National Gallery in London. Early life Penny was educated at Shrewsbury School before he studied English at St Catharine ...

. 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 Yves Bouvier (born 8 September 1963) is a Swiss businessman and art dealer best known for his role in the Bouvier Affair that resulted in criminal charges being brought and dismissed against him in France and Monaco by Russian oligarch Dmitry ...

for a sum of $80 million, who then sold the painting to Russian businessman

Dmitry Rybolovlev Dmitry Yevgenyevich Rybolovlev (, ; born 22 November 1966) is a Russian oligarch, billionaire businessman, and investor. Rybolovlev became chairman of the Russian fertilizer producer Uralkali in 1995. In 2010, he sold his majority share of ...

for $127.5 million. Simon co-authored ''Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi and the Collecting of Leonardo in the Stuart Courts'' with art historians

Martin Kemp Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in ''EastEnders''. He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also a ...

and Margaret Dalivalle. The book was by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2019. He was also featured in the 2021 documentary, '' The Lost Leonardo''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Robert B. Living people American art dealers Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American art historians American writers 1952 births

Education

Career in art

''Salvator Mundi''

See also

References