Stocked with blue chip artworks and bespoke pieces, superyachts in Monaco and beyond have become floating art galleries in their own right. We speak to specialist curators and consultants helping owners navigate the pitfalls of housing works at sea

Words: Will Moffitt

Depicting Jesus Christ in an anachronistic blue Renaissance dress, clutching a crystal orb, fingers bent into a sign of the cross, the Salvator Mundy spiked art world hysteria when it sold for $450.3 million at a Manhattan auction room in November 2017. Believed to be the work of Leonardo da Vinci – some dispute the claim – it became the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction when it was bought by Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud at Christie’s. Shortly after it was revealed that the purchase was done on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The mysterious painting has sparked conspiracy rabbit holes ever since and had some of the art world’s foremost experts asking pointed questions about its veracity and value. One lingering trail of speculation has concerned its location. In the summer of 2019 major news outlets reported that it had been installed in the prince’s colossal yacht, Serene. At that moment the 134 metre vessel was stationed in Port Said, the Egyptian city where the Suez Canal meets the Mediterranean Sea.

That a painting of such eye-watering value could be onboard a yacht, rather than hidden away in a guarded facility or a high security vault or a gallery for that matter, sparked surprise and consternation. However, in the hyper affluent sphere of billionaire behaviour this wasn't a new thing.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the owner of Manchester City and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has several hundred artworks aboard his ÂŁ350m superyacht, Topaz. Joe Lewis, the British billionaire best known for owning a majority stake in Tottenham football club, had an extremely rare painting by Francis Bacon hanging in gold frames on the lower deck of his ÂŁ200 million superyacht Aviva.

Of course, while yachts stuffed with masterpieces are not an everyday occurrence, there is a running consensus that superyachts are becoming floating galleries in their own right. Afterall, if you can afford an opulent yacht, you can afford to shop at blue chip art galleries.

When it comes to the housing of enviable collections at sea there are a raft of pitfalls and challenges that can befall owners. From ensuring these pieces are kept in pristine condition to the legal issues that can arise, superyacht owners invariably seek out specialists to help them ensure their works are secure and kept in pristine condition.

One of those specialists is Pandora Mather-Lees, an Oxford-educated art historian who founded Art On Superyachts, an advisory firm dedicated to the protection and preservation of fine art in international waters. Through lectures and training programmes Mather-Lees and her team help staff with the burden of priceless objects.

The enterprise was born in Monaco where Mather-Lees spotted a gap in the market for maritime art advisory services. “I noticed all of these training courses at the Monaco Yacht Show. I noticed wine appreciation and I thought: why is a stewardess learning about wine? There's all this art on board that's worth millions,” she recalls. “The art can be worth more than the vessel itself. It is the only appreciating asset. It is genuinely unique.”

While it might sound like a more sensible idea to stow art on dry land, Mather-Lees argues that the yachts can be controlled to ensure that valuable paintings remain undamaged by sun or spills.

“On a yacht where you've got the latest technology, you've got a contained environment,” she says. “They're moving slowly between territories too, because the yacht moves at so many nautical miles, so it's not having a sharp change of temperature or climate.”

A vital part of her role is educational – ensuring that staff on board realise the astronomical value of the works in their care. Mather-Lees often shows the crew an image of a slit painting by the Argentine-Italian painter and sculptor Lucio Fontana. To the untrained eye these canvases might not look valuable but they are worth millions.

Another pivotal aspect of these training programmes involves export risks and legal treaties that prohibit certain works from entering international waters. A key convention is CITES: an endangered species regulation that prohibits the trafficking of thousands of illegal items. These include python skins, ivory and rosewood.

“If you are found to be trafficking, you can be arrested. Customs officers have boarded a vessel and found ivory embedded into something and hacked it out or they've confiscated the items,” Mather-Lees says. “Ivory is an absolute no, no. Ebony and Rosewood [are also banned]. There was a rock star's guitar that was taken from a yacht because it was made from rosewood.”

If a yacht is found to be carrying an artwork deemed to be a national treasure there can be serious legal implications and costly fines. Jaime Botin, part of the Santander banking dynasty, was caught transporting a Picasso painting on his 67-metre sailing yacht Adix in 2015. Courts fined the Spanish billionaire €52.4 million and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Of course not all yachts are housing Picassos. Often owners have pieces made to a bespoke visual style. Artelier, a leading art consultancy and advisory firm with a client office on 64 Grosvenor Street, curates unique art collections for superyachts.

“Yacht projects tend to focus on investment pieces rather than story-led commissions,” says Marie Boutignon, a senior curator at Artelier. Boutignon’s research predominantly revolves around “established international artists who will add value to the client’s portfolio”.

Once the research stage is finalised the firm has a database of around 20,000 artists to choose from. These artists and artisans often specialise in a particular creative niche. They might be an expert glassblower from Prague or are particularly skilled in the Japanese art of Raku ceramics.

“Usually everything is bespoke but there are situations where time is tight and owners are looking for something that is ready to go and will fit the space,” explains the firm’s founder, David Knowles. “Yachts have very specific dimensions, so finding the right shape, size of artwork, the right colour, the right style, which is also the right price, is challenging.”

Some years ago Knowles contacted Janine Lambers to paint a mural for Neninka (previously known as Aurora Borealis) a 67.6 metre vessel that made quite an impression at the Monaco Yacht Show in 2019, where it was recognised as a ‘Standout Yacht’ by Boat International.

Based in New York, Lambers specialises in traditional water gilding and embellishing techniques. Via Zoom she shows me a series of intricate gold leaf paintings that line the walls of her apartment. They’re subtle and pared down with grey and white backgrounds that let the gold shine through.

Lambers created this particular work – a five-metre mural of Mount Fuji – over several months in Helge Meuthien's lacquering workshop in Hamburg, using water and animal glue to create the glinting impression of Japan’s famous mountain. Like her other works the depiction is not just a pretty picture but a deep evocation and philosophical metaphor for life’s impermanence.

“There's always this falling off. This idea of impermanence, that there's no solidity in anything,” Lambers says. “That's what I tried to [convey] in this painting. That even though it's a mountain, it's not a solid piece.”

If there’s one place that is best suited to house such an elegant meditation on the fluidity and flux of life it’s on a boat out at sea.