WOLFGANG BELTRACCHI
"Salvator Mundi – zu Gast in Luzern"
23 November, 2025 — 11 January, 2026 | Johannes Kirche Stadt Luzern
Daily 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Free admission
Katholische Kirche Stadt Luzern
Pfarrei St. Johannes
Schädrütistrasse 26
6006 Luzern, Switzerland
Beltracchi exhibits at Johannes Kirche Stadt Luzern a series of works that rethink the iconic image of Salvator Mundi, not primarily as a savior, but as a seer whose gaze reaches into the dark abysses of history. Unlike traditional art history, where the work is typically seen as a symbol of divine salvation, Beltracchi’s interpretation in this Salvator Mundi exhibition in Luzern reveals a vision of calamity. The crystal orb that Christ holds does not radiate promise but instead reflects flickering lights of monsters, dragons, or even the atomic explosion in Hiroshima.
In Beltracchi Salvator Mundi Luzern, the artist’s work questions not only the attribution of “Salvator Mundi” to Leonardo da Vinci but also its role as a symbol of hope. Instead, he presents the “Salvator Mundi” with a prophetic gaze into a changing world, and the image thus becomes a symbol of tension between faith, power, and catastrophe. Within the sacred setting of Johannes Kirche Stadt Luzern, these different interpretations of “Salvator Mundi” become a mirror of our time and a key part of Beltracchi Salvator Mundi Luzern, challenging viewers to seek new answers to old questions — not only about salvation, but also about responsibility and vigilance in a fragile world.
Participatory Project for Young and Old
from Sun, 23 November 2025
to Sun, 11 January 2026
As part of the exhibition "Salvator Mundi – A Guest in Lucerne" featuring works by Wolfgang Beltracchi, the Parish of St. Johannes Lucerne invites you to participate:
What would you like to be delivered from?
What do you wish for yourself—or for the world?
Create your own transparent orb, with a wish, thought, or symbol, either in the church or at home.
The orbs will become part of the 2025 Christmas nativity scene in the Johanneskirche—as a sign that the infant Jesus is born amid our hopes and longings.
Workshop on “Salvator Mundi”
29 November 2025, 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Guided tour of “Salvator Mundi”
29 November 2025, at 5:00 pm
Workshop on “Salvator Mundi”
6 December 2025, 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
The Original
It is one of the most mysterious paintings of the Italian Renaissance, the 16th-century work "Salvator Mundi" featuring the face of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.
It is generally attributed to the master Leonardo Da Vinci. For a long time, it was lost until it surprisingly resurfaced in 2005. It was purchased for just over $1000 by two art dealers at an auction in New Orleans.
Since then, the "Salvator Mundi" has become one of the biggest mysteries in the art crime world. Although extensive historical and scientific analyses have been conducted, its origin could not be definitively clarified. Perhaps it really is by Leonardo Da Vinci or by one of his students, or maybe someone else painted it.
Despite this uncertainty, in 2017, the restored artwork, also called the "male Mona Lisa," was auctioned at Christie's in New York for the highest price ever paid for a painting—$450 million. The buyer and the current location of the painting remain unknown.
An expert’s assessment of the world’s most expensive painting
In the Johanneskirche, Wolfgang Beltracchi presents several original works from his 2021 project “The Greats,” in which he explores the question of how other artists from significant art periods would have responded to the work “Salvator Mundi,” allegedly painted by Leonardo da Vinci, if the masterpiece had truly existed.
Wolfgang Beltracchi, who specializes in studying artists’ “handwriting” in detail, is convinced that the original “Salvator Mundi” could not have been created by the left-handed Leonardo da Vinci, but rather by an unknown painter, a right-hander who lived about 100 years after Leonardo da Vinci.
