Sir Francis Cook

'It would look good in the dining room!' Grandson of man who sold Leonardo da Vinci's £340m masterpiece Salvator Mundi for just £45 wishes it was hanging on his wall at home

Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi sold at auction for a record £342million
Was in England for 400 years and belonged to King Charles I and 2 other kings
But it vanished in around 1900 and resurfaced in 1958 when it sold for £45
Previously kept in London mansion Doughty House as part of Cook Collection

By Joseph Curtis For Mailonline

Published: 08:58 EST, 16 November 2017 | Updated: 13:40 EST, 16 November 2017

The grandson of a man who sold Leonardo da Vinci's £340million masterpiece Salvator Mundi for just £45 says he would love it hanging on his dining room wall.

Sir Francis Cook sold the Italian master's painting of Jesus for a fraction of its value in 1958 when it was dismissed as the work of one of da Vinci's students.

But yesterday that decision came back to haunt to family when it became the most expensive art work ever sold after a furious 20-minute telephone bidding war in New York.

Today Sir Francis' grandson Richard Cook was philosophical about £340million slipping through his family's fingers.

He told MailOnline: 'I think it's absolutely wonderful news. Old masters have been undervalued for a very long time. I am an art historian myself and used to work for Christie's New York.

'I really hope that the new buyers exhibit it in a museum like I would.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5089007/Photos-reveal-former-home-342m-Da-Vinci-artwork.html

Doughty House is a large house on Richmond Hill in Richmond, London, England, built in the 18th century, with later additions. It has fine views down over the Thames, and both the house and gallery are Grade II listed buildings.^[1][2]
The house was named after Elizabeth Doughty, who lived there from about 1786,^[3] and built St Elizabeth of Portugal Church in The Vineyard, Richmond. It was the residence of the Cook baronets from when it was bought in 1849 by the first baronet until after World War II. A 125-foot-long gallery (38 m) was added in 1885 for the very important family art collection. The house was damaged by bombing in the Second World War and the 4th baronet moved to Jersey with 30 paintings from the collection.


Elizabeth of Aragon, also known as Elizabeth of Portugal,^[2] T.O.S.F. (1271 – 4 July 1336; Elisabet in Catalan, Isabel in Aragonese, Portuguese and Spanish), was queen consort of Portugal, a tertiary of the Franciscan Order and is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.



Sir Francis Cook, 1st Baronet (1817–1901) was a British merchant and art collector.
In 1833, he entered his father's firm Cook, Son & Co. based in the City of London, which traded finished wool, cotton, linen and silk, after travels in Europe and the Near East. From 1869, he was its head, rising to be one of Britain's three richest men.
In 1849, he bought Doughty House in Richmond and in 1855 the quinta of Monserrate in Sintra, Portugal. There, he restored Monserrate Palace, a Moorish-style palace, and became visconde de Monserrate (Viscount of Monserrate).
He began to collect classical sculpture in the late 1850s. He collected his first major paintings in 1868, at which date Sir John Charles Robinson (1824–1913), former V&A curator, became his advisor. He had 510 major works by 1876 and in 1885 added a Long Gallery to Doughty House to accommodate the growing collection, making this gallery open to scholars.

In 1885, he married for the second time to the American feminist stockbroker and former clairvoyant Tennessee Claflin, and on 10 March 1886 he was created a baronet.^[1] He died on 17 February 1901, leaving an estate of £1,600,000, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery. He was succeeded by his son Frederick.




In late 1869, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin rented two rooms at the posh Hoffman House at 44 Broad Street in New York City. In January 1870, they sent out calling cards announcing their new brokerage firm, Woodhull, Claflin, & Company.^[9] They charged $25 in advance for a consultation.^[8] The sisters were financially backed by Cornelius Vanderbilt.^[10] The elegantly furnished office of Woodhull, Claflin, & Company opened on February 14, 1870.^[9] The sisters were so besieged by curious visitors that 100 police officers had to keep order.^[9]
In an article entitled "Wall-Street Aroused," The New York Times questioned the sisters' potential for success, not because they were women, but because of their association with spiritualism and other unorthodox causes.^[9] Harper’s Weekly dubbed them "Bewitching Brokers" in a cartoon while another article in the magazine questioned whether but there was an enough female investors to make the firm a success.^[9]



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