Exceptional result for a Salvator Mundi of the Caravaggio school passed at auction at Wannenes in Genoa on April 15: the work, given generically to a “Caravaggesque painter of the 17th century,” an oil on canvas nearly five feet high by about three feet wide, offered with an estimate of just 2-3.000 euros and from a private collection, made the hammer stop at the incredible figure of 190,120 euros, which later became 237,650 with auction fees of 25 percent.

A figure worthy, if not of a masterpiece, at least of a good work by a first-rate Caravaggesque artist. With this figure, the anonymous Salvator Mundi was the top lot of the auction, in a sale that offered names such as Bernardo Strozzi, the Scarsellino, Alessandro Magnasco, Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Giovanni Paolo Pannini and other important names in early Italian art.