Salvator Mundi Museum of Art

 THE ORB SHOW: ALL ABOUT BALLS

Brooklyn, NY — [04/03/2026] — The Salvator Mundi Museum of Art announces The Orb Show: All About Balls, an exhibition inspired by one of the most debated—and quietly perplexing—details in the most expensive painting ever sold: the crystal sphere held by Christ in Salvator Mundi.

At first glance, it's just a glass ball. But look closer—and the entire painting begins to unravel.

Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, the orb should refract light, bending and distorting the world behind it. Leonardo understood optics better than almost anyone in history. And yet, in Salvator Mundi, the sphere behaves as if the laws of physics simply… don't apply.

So what are we looking at?

A master deliberately painting the impossible to suggest divine truth? Or a mistake that calls the authorship into question?

The Orb Show begins here—but refuses to stay there.

The exhibition opens outward from the sphere—moving both backward and forward across centuries of human imagination—revealing how this simple form has accumulated meaning, symbolism, and even absurdity over time. The more you look, the clearer it becomes: the orb isn't just a detail—it's a recurring human obsession.

To hold the sphere has long been to imagine holding knowledge—and with it, control. One of the earliest and most profound shifts in human understanding came when we recognized that the world itself was round, not flat: suddenly, the unknowable became something that could be mapped, measured, and, in a sense, possessed.

In this exhibition, that promise takes many forms—from a plastic fortune-telling toy becoming a mass-produced oracle, to a spinning mirrored ball transforming a room into a galaxy of stars.

Even in contemporary art, the orb persists—whether in the reflective surfaces of Jeff Koons' gazing balls or the recursive self-awareness of M. C. Escher's mirrored worlds.

Each one asks the same question in a different disguise: What does it mean to see everything—and to hold it?

Meanwhile, the original orb remains unresolved.

Since its $450.3 million sale at Christie's in 2017, the painting has largely disappeared from public view. Institutions such as the National Gallery and the Louvre have taken notably different positions on its attribution, while its widely reported owner, Mohammed bin Salman, has remained silent.

And at the center of it all: the orb.

"The sphere has become a kind of intellectual Rorschach test," says he museum's director. "People don't just look at it—they project into it. Genius or failure, divinity or illusion, certainty or doubt. The orb doesn't resolve the painting—it destabilizes it."

That destabilization is exactly where The Orb Show lives.

Blending art history, cultural commentary, humor, and a touch of philosophical mischief, the exhibition invites visitors to reconsider not just a single painting, but a shape that has quietly shaped how we think about power, knowledge, and the universe itself.

Because whether carved in crystal, cast in gold, or bought for $9.99, every sphere carries the same seductive idea:

That the world—no matter how vast—remains something we long to grasp.

Exhibition: The Orb Show: All About Balls
Location: Salvator Mundi Museum of Art, 144 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Opening: April 7, 2026
Hours: Open daily 9am–10pm | Private tours available upon request
Admission: Free
Website: www.SalvatorMundiMuseum.org
Phone: (929) 365-9680

Taking its name from the world's most expensive work of art, the Salvator Mundi Museum of Art is dedicated to exploring all aspects, implications, and ramifications of the Salvator Mundi story and art history. The museum houses one of the largest private collections of art and ephemera surrounding the Salvator Mundi story and regularly mounts exhibitions on related areas of study.

Founded in 2017 by artist Elliott Arkin as part of the contemporary art project Real Salvator Mundi, the museum continues its mission to examine the intersection of art, commerce, authentication, and cultural obsession through exhibitions that are by turns scholarly, satirical, and profound.

Previous exhibitions include Salvator Barbi (comparing the cultural phenomenon of the Salvator Mundi painting with Barbie) and The Art of Rescue (uniting the restoration of great artworks with the reclamation of rescued animals).

The museum is approximately 45 square feet and is viewable through the exhibition space glass area.

Salvator Mundi Museum of Art
144 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
(929) 365-9680
RealSalvatorMundi@gmail.com
www.SalvatorMundiMuseum.org