A painting of Christ by the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci sold for a record US$450 million at auction on Wednesday.

The painting, called "Salvator Mundi," Italian for "Savior of the World," is one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo known to exist and the only one in private hands.

The 66 centimetre tall painting dates from around 1500 and shows Christ dressed in Renaissance-style robes, his right hand raised in blessing as his left hand holds a crystal sphere.

Its path from Leonardo's workshop to the auction block at Christie's was not smooth. Once owned by King Charles I of England, it disappeared from view until 1900, when it resurfaced and was acquired by a British collector. At that time it was attributed to a Leonardo disciple, rather than to the master himself.

The painting was sold again in 1958 and then acquired in 2005, badly damaged and partly painted-over, by a consortium of art dealers who paid less than US$10,000. The art dealers restored the painting and documented its authenticity as a work by Leonardo.

The painting was sold Wednesday by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought it in 2013 for US$127.5 million in a private sale that became the subject of a continuing lawsuit.

TOP 5 MOST EXPENSIVE PAINTINGS SOLD AT AUCTION

 
RANK TITLE ARTIST YEAR PRICE SOLD AT DATE
1
 		   Les Femmes d'Alger
("Version O")		 Pablo
Picasso		 1955 US$179.4M Christie's (NY) May 11, 2015
2
 		 Nu Couché
 		 Amedeo
Modigliani		 1917-18 US$170.4M Christie's (NY) Nov. 9, 2015
3
 		 Three Studies of
Lucian Freud		 Francis
Bacon		 1969 US$142.4M Christie's (NY) Nov. 12, 2013
4
 		 The Scream
 		 Edvard
Munch		 1895 US$119.9M Sotheby's (NY) May 2, 2012
5
 		 Untitled
 		 Jean-Michel
Basquiat		 1982 US$110.5M Sotheby's (NY) May 18, 2017
 

Source: CBS News

Christie's says most scholars agree that the painting is by Leonardo, though some critics have questioned the attribution and some say the extensive restoration muddies the work's authorship.

Christie's capitalized on the public's interest in Leonardo, considered one of the greatest artists of all time, with a media campaign that labeled the painting "The Last Da Vinci." The work was exhibited in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York before the sale.

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The All-Time Champ:  Pablo Picasso's 'Les femmes d'Alger ('Version O')' fetched US$179.4M at auction in 2015. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)

The highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction was US$179.4 million, for Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)" in May 2015, also at Christie's in New York.

A backer of the "Salvator Mundi" auction had guaranteed a bid of at least US$100 million.

The highest known sale price for any artwork was US$300 million for Willem de Kooning's "Interchange" in September 2015. It was sold privately by the David Geffen Foundation to hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin.

In New York, where no museum owns a Leonardo, art lovers lined up outside Christie's Rockefeller Center headquarters on Tuesday to view "Salvator Mundi."

Svetla Nikolova, who is from Bulgaria but lives in New York, called the painting "spectacular."

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," she said. "It should be seen. It's wonderful it's in New York. I'm so lucky to be in New York at this time."