OREANDA-NEWS. The Italian police returned to the museum in Naples a five-hundred-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci's most expensive painting, The Guardian reports. The keepers did not even know about the loss.

"The painting was discovered on January 16 thanks to a brilliant and carefully planned police police," said Naples prosecutor Giovanni Melillo.

This depiction of Jesus Christ with his right hand raised in a blessing gesture and with a power in his left belongs to the collection of the Museum of the Church of San Domenico Maggiore in the historic center of Naples.

The museum was closed for several months due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus infection, and no one noticed the disappearance of the painting.

The police are continuing their investigation and are trying to figure out exactly how it was stolen, since no signs of a burglary were found.

The owner of the apartment in which a copy of the "Savior of the World" was found was arrested on suspicion of selling stolen property. The linen was kept in a closet in his bedroom.

The canvas was created in the early 1500s by one of the students of Leonardo Da Vinci - Giacomo Alibrandi.

"Savior of the World" by Leonardo Da Vinci is considered the most expensive painting in the world, as in 2017 it was sold at Christie’s auction for 450 million dollars to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. After that, she was never introduced to the public, and experts began to doubt her originality.