We all misplace things from time to time, be it our keys, bank cards or other halves. Few of us, however, can claim to have unwittingly parted company with the World’s Most Expensive Painting Ever. But then few of us, unlike the somewhat cavalier custodians of the Abu Dhabi Louvre, are ever likely to be entrusted with as illustrious an illustrative work as Salvator Mundi, a 500-year-old painting of Jesus said to have been the work of Leonardo “Mona Lisa” da Vinci, which fetched a truly divine US$450 million at an auction in 2017.

Now the property of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the work was scheduled to go on display in the United Arab Emirates gallery back in September. After extensive ducking of the issue and several months of prevarication, it finally transpired that the Louvre’s sundry art-look-afterers, thought that, maybe, it had been sent to Zurich to be examined. Or maybe Geneva. Alternatively, it may well be deep in the repository’s cellars, possibly under a pile of unopened mail and some old instant noodle cartons. Whatever the final outcome, one thing is clear – the Lord certainly has been moved in a mysterious way.