Christie’s New York salesroom was amazed this week by flurry of bids over a 19-minute period culminating with a record sale price of €450,000,000. The same painting fetched as little as €10,000 in 2005!
At an exhibition in 2011 it was valued at €127.5 million so this week’s figure had been somewhat anticipated. The main reason for the price hike is its scarcity value. There are less than 20 Da Vinci paintings in existence.
The normal five-year window of authenticity now follows during which time the paintings provenance will be tested by those who have reason to doubt its genuineness. It also ensures that Christie’s reputation remains intact!
We need to consider why Christians, perhaps until recent times, have avoided portraying the face of Christ?
Besides the obvious one that no one knows what Christ looked like there is the fact of Christ’s two natures. He was fully human and fully divine. Whatever the difficulties posed in imagining his physical form there is the sheer impossibility of being able to portray his divinity.
The simple truth is that there was never a time when Christ did not exist. What was new was when he took flesh (St John Chapter 1 verses 1 and 14). The mighty God (Isaiah Chapter 9 verse 6) became a child of a virgin, Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, without ever ceasing to be what he always was (St Luke Chapter 1 verses 27, 31 to 35).
He was born into the lower end of the social scale. He was, in his short life on earth, the ‘Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’. He endured poverty, homelessness, pain, thirst and weariness; misunderstanding and rejection among those he came to save.
The wonder of God’s grace to us fellow human beings is that Christ can sympathise with our weaknesses because he was tempted in every respect as we are yet he was without sin (Hebrews Chapter 4 verse 15).
Perhaps most works of art of Christ show him on the cross as the great sin-bearer. There the artist tries to capture the suffering of unmitigated physical pain and total social isolation. His soul was in touch with all that Hell could do by way of darkness and temptation. But above and beyond all that he had to endure the bearing of the world’s sin as he was forsaken by God his Father (St Matthew Chapter 27 verses 45/46).
“He die, me no die” was the simple yet profound statement of the African believer. It captures the substitution of Christ’s death in the place of the guilty – ensuring that
the repentant guilty sinner can go freed to live a life of love (Ephesians Chapter 5 verse 2).
The fact is you cannot buy Christ – not even with the astronomical figure paid this week! But by God’s grace you can know him (St John Chapter 17 verse 3 and 1 John chapter 5 verse 20).