Last night, a little-known Saudi prince was identified as the anonymous buyer who paid a record $450 million last month for a painting by da Vinci. According to the Wall Street Journal, that buyer was a proxy for Mohammad bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince.
The backdrop: Mohammad is in the midst of what he calls a crackdown on corruption, and has been criticized internationally as a power grab. That's interesting timing to pay nearly half a billion dollars for a painting.