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What is the only Da Vinci painting on the open market worth? A Russian billionaire believes he was swindled when he bought it for $127.5 million. This week he’ll find out if he was right.

“Salvator Mundi,” a painting of Jesus Christ by the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci circa 1500, is the star lot in New York’s November art auctions that will see Christie’s and Sotheby’s chase combined art sales of more than $1 billion.

It goes under the hammer at Christie’s on Wednesday evening, something of an incongruous lot in the postwar and contemporary sale, which attracts the biggest spenders in the high-octane world of international billionaire art collectors.

The auction house, which declines to comment on the controversy and identifies the seller only as a European collector, has valued the painting at $100 million.

“Look at the painting, it is an extraordinary work of art,” said Francois de Poortere, head of the old masters department at Christie’s. “That’s what we should focus on.”

But the price will be closely watched — not just as one of fewer than 20 paintings by Da Vinci’s hand accepted to exist, but by its owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, the boss of soccer club AS Monaco who is suing Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier in that city-state.

Rybolovlev, who spent an eye-watering $2.1 billion on 37 masterpieces purchased through Bouvier over a decade, accuses Bouvier of conning him by hundreds of million dollars by overcharging him on a string of deals, and pocketing the difference.

At the heart of the court battle is “Salvator Mundi,” which has been exhibited at The National Gallery in London.

Bouvier bought the Da Vinci at Sotheby’s for $80 million in 2013. He resold it within days to the Russian tycoon, for $127.5 million, netting a $47.5 million profit. Bouvier denies any wrongdoing.

The painting’s rarity is difficult to overstate. For years it was presumed to have been destroyed.

Long believed to have been a copy, before eventually being certified as authentic, it fetched a mere 45 pounds ($60 in today’s money) in 1958 before disappearing again for decades. It emerged only in 2005 when it was purchased from a US estate.

All other known paintings by Da Vinci are held in museum or institutional collections.

“For auction specialists, this is pretty much the Holy Grail,” Loic Gouzer, co-chairman of Christie’s Americas postwar and contemporary art department, has said. “It doesn’t really get better than that.”

 A Ferrari on the block

Christie’s has sought to emphasize Da Vinci’s inestimable contribution to art history by hanging “Salvator Mundi” next to Andy Warhol’s “Sixty Last Suppers” — which depicts Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” 60 times over, also on sale with a $50 million estimate.

Pablo Picasso holds the world record for the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction. His “The Women of Algiers (Version O)” fetched $179.4 million at Christie’s in New York in 2015.

Other highlights being offered by the auction house are “Contraste de formes,” a 1913 Fernand Leger valued at $65 million and “Laboureur dans un champ” by Van Gogh, painted from the window of a French asylum in 1889 and valued at $50 million.

Sotheby’s, whose May sales languished behind Christie’s, says it has more than 60 works making their auction debuts this week.

Chief among them is Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of George Dyer,” valued at $35-45 million, and which it says is appearing in public for the first time in 50 years. Bacon painted the work in 1966 during his passionate relationship with Dyer.

Two other such triptychs are in museums, while an additional two have been offered at auction in recent years.

Sotheby’s other star lot is a 1972 Warhol “Mao,” exhibited in Berlin, Turin and Paris, and now back in public view for the first time since 1974. It has been given an estimate of $30-40 million.

Each of the other 10 “Mao” paintings of the same size are in prestigious public and private collections, including the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Sotheby’s calls it one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.

And for the first time, the house has added a rare automobile to an art auction, offering Michael Schumacher’s Grand Prix-Winning Ferrari for upwards of $4 million on Thursday. But is it a work of art?

“No, it’s not,” said Gregoire Billault, senior Sotheby’s vice president, of the sleek, low-slung, fire-engine red vehicle. “But it’s… the very best racing car ever sold at an auction.”

 
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The chairman of the House’s tax-writing committee said Sunday that he’s confident that chamber won’t go along with the Senate’s proposal to eliminate the deduction for property taxes, setting up a major flashpoint as Republicans in the House and Senate aim to put a tax cut bill on President Donald Trump’s desk before Christmas.

The GOP is moving urgently to push forward on the first rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, but key differences promise to complicate the effort.

Among the biggest differences in the two bills that have emerged: the House bill allows homeowners to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes while the Senate proposal unveiled by GOP leaders last week eliminates the entire deduction.

The deduction is particularly important to residents in states with high property values or tax rates, such as New Jersey, Illinois, California and New York. Congressman Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he worked with lawmakers in those states to ensure the House bill “delivers this relief,” and he was committed to ensuring it stays in the final package.

“It’s important to make sure that people keep more of what they learn, even in these high-tax states,” Brady, R-Texas, said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

Both the House and Senate bill would eliminate deductions for state and local income taxes and sales taxes paid. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans should fully restore what is referred to as the SALT deduction, or millions of middle-class families would end up paying higher federal income taxes, not less.

“The House’s so-called ‘compromise’ would be saying to the middle class we’ll only chop off four of your fingers instead of all five,” Schumer said in a statement.

 
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The arrival of more than than 130,000 Puerto Ricans in Florida since Hurricane Maria has some officials anticipating a political shakeup in a battleground state dominated by the Republican party.

Both parties are actively courting new arrivals to Florida, which President Donald Trump won last year by 112,000 votes out of 9.6 million cast.

Many Puerto Ricans have expressed outrage over Trump’s handling of the storm but have applauded efforts by Republican Gov. Rick Scott to welcome them.

As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans can vote in federal elections when they move to the mainland. Newcomers must register as voters by next July 30 to vote in primaries ahead of the 2018 general election of a new governor to replace term-limited Scott and choose Florida’s congressional delegation.

Javier Gonzalez has joined a human tide of more than 130,000 U.S. citizens arriving in Florida since Hurricane Maria wrecked Puerto Rico, grateful for a place to start over but resenting how their island has been treated since the disaster.

More than a million Puerto Ricans — about 5 percent of Florida’s population — already call the state home, and given the outrage many feel over President Donald Trump’s handling of the storm, political observers say this voting bloc could loosen the Republican Party’s hold on this battleground state.

Gonzalez, 38, saw the storm destroy the restaurant he opened with his father five years ago. Without power or reliable water, he became violently ill from food poisoning for three weeks. Finally, he packed his bags, determined to make his future in Miami instead.

“There is resentment, and we feel abandoned compared to Texas and Florida,” Gonzalez said. “We were desperate for help.”

Like any Puerto Rican, Gonzalez can vote in all elections now that he’s moved to the mainland. He doesn’t plan to register for any party, but he follows the news and understands their platforms. He’s aware of Trump’s tweets.

“It’s not right that we’ve fought from World War I, to Vietnam and Afghanistan and that the first thing the president says is: ‘You have a large debt, big problems and have cost us millions,'” Gonzalez added.

Puerto Ricans are not the gift to the Republican Party that the anti-Castro Cuban diaspora has been historically. They’ve tended to favor Democrats, given their support for public education and social services. Around 70 percent of Florida’s non-Cuban Latinos voted for Hillary Clinton.

Both parties are courting the new arrivals to Florida, which Trump won last year by just 112,000 votes out of 9.6 million cast.

“There is an intent to grab those who are coming,” said Rep. Robert Asencio, a Democrat of Puerto Rican descent who represents Miami in the Florida House and leads the Miami-Dade Committee for Hurricane Maria Relief.

“A lot of my colleagues say they are not politicizing this, but there is an effort to bring people either to the Democratic or the Republican side,” Asencio said.

Newcomers must register by next July 30 to vote in 2018 for a new governor to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Rick Scott and choose Florida’s congressional delegation, now 11 Democrats and 16 Republicans. Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson also defends his seat next year, and Scott, who has been applauded for helping evacuees, is expected to challenge him in what could be a close race.

Scott set up three disaster relief centers to help arrivals with driver’s licenses, job searches, and disaster aid applications. Scott also asked education officials to waive public school enrollment rules for evacuated islanders, and to give college-bound evacuees the same tuition breaks state residents get.

Asencio calls Scott’s actions “damage control,” given the multimillionaire governor’s close relationship with Trump, who offended Puerto Ricans by tweeting they wanted “everything to be done for them” rather than taking responsibility for their own recovery. They also resent Trump’s rating of his own disaster response as a “10 out of 10,” blaming his administration for delays that exposed their families to illness and misery.

The island still faces a lengthy and painful recovery after the storm took down the entire electrical grid, leaving hospitals in the dark and closing schools for several weeks. Initial projections that 95 percent of the people will have power restored by year’s end now look optimistic.

Maria’s evacuees are following waves of people frustrated by Puerto Rico’s unemployment and debt crisis who settled in Central Florida, shifting from New York, the favored destination of previous generations. Of the more than 140,000 islanders estimated to have left since the storm, more than 130,000 went to Florida, where Puerto Ricans may soon displace Cubans as the largest Latino group.

State Rep. Rene Plasencia, a Republican from Orlando, predicts that Scott’s warm welcome will leave a bigger impression on the newcomers than any Trump tweets.

“For whatever people think of the president, you have to take into consideration the actions of Governor Scott,” said Plasencia, whose mother and wife are from Puerto Rico. “People aren’t making decisions out of a sequence of tweets… It makes good news, but it doesn’t make political shifts.”

Billionaires Charles and David Koch also are involved, funding the Libre Initiative, which welcomed hundreds of evacuees on the first cruise ship to arrive from San Juan.

Cesar Grajales, who lobbies for Libre, says they’re helping evacuees learn English and connect with community and business leaders.

Democrats hope Colombian-American Annette Taddeo’s recent underdog state Senate victory against a well-funded Republican in South Florida shows her anti-Trump message will keep resonating.

“It is a strong indication that voters are paying attention, and they are angry,” said Cristobal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Project. “We wouldn’t have the devastation and abandonment of Puerto Rico without Donald Trump. People will look at that.”

On the island, Puerto Rico’s lack of statehood means they can’t vote in general presidential elections, and can only send a non-voting representative to Congress. On the mainland, they’ll have more power.

“I know for a fact that we are well educated and we are going to come here to work,” Gonzalez said. “And yes, we are going to make a voice. We are going to make a bigger voice than before.”

 
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Iran’s nuclear deal is “not negotiable,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bassam Ghassemi said Saturday in response to remarks by the French president.

Emmanuel Macron called for vigilance toward Tehran over its ballistic missile program and regional activities, in an interview published Wednesday by the Emirati daily Al-Ittihad.

“We have told French leaders on several occasions that the Iran nuclear deal is not negotiable and that no other issues can be included in the text” of the 2015 agreement, state news agency IRNA quoted Ghassemi as saying.

France, the Foreign Ministry speaker said, is “fully aware of our country’s intangible position concerning the issue of Iran’s defensive affairs, which are not negotiable.”

In the interview with Al-Ittihad, published during Macron’s 24-hour visit to Abu Dhabi, the French president said: “It is important to remain firm with Iran over its regional activities and its ballistic program.”

Macron also said there was no immediate alternative to the Iranian nuclear deal — long lambasted by U.S. President Donald Trump — which curbs Iran’s nuclear program.

France has been trying to salvage the 2015 nuclear, which Iran signed with six world powers — Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and the United States.

On October 13, Macron told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone call that France remained committed to the deal.

But the French leader stressed it was also necessary to have a dialogue with Iran on other strategic issues, including Tehran’s ballistic missile program and regional security, a proposal ruled out by Iran.

Macron’s visit this week to Abu Dhabi came amid renewed tensions between regional arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s nuclear deal saw sanctions imposed on Tehran lifted in exchange for limits on its atomic program.
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North Korea denounced U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday for trying to halt the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued its first official statement on Trump’s trip to Asia, saying it “is a warmonger’s trip for confrontation with our country, trying to remove our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.”

Pyongyang also accused Trump of trying to isolate it from the global community and weaken its government.

“Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance,” the ministry said.

Much of Trump’s five-nation Asia tour has focused on North Korea. Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping privately on the North Korea nuclear issue, Trump administration officials said. According to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump told Xi, “You’re a strong man. I’m sure you can solve this for me.”

Xi urged his South Korean counterpart Saturday to reopen talks with North Korea to help manage the security threat posed by North Korea, according to Reuters news agency reports citing China’s state-owned news service, Xinhua.

At APEC gathering

On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, Xi reportedly encouraged South Korean President Moon Jae-in to re-engage with North Korea in an attempt to get the North to end its nuclear and missile programs, which violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The leaders of South Korea and China agreed on the need to seek a peaceful resolution to the North Korean threat, South Korea’s presidential spokesman reportedly said. As a result, the spokesman said, the two countries will engage in more intensive talks on all levels.

Tensions on the peninsula heightened last month when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Trump exchanged threats over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

In addition to the U.S., South Korea has urged China to take a more assertive role in curbing North Korea’s military aspirations. Beijing has maintained it is doing all it can to restrain North Korea’s provocative actions.

Moon and Xi have reportedly agreed to meet in China next month for another round of summit talks. In addition, Moon invited Xi to South Korea to attend the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February, South Korea’s presidential spokesman reportedly said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump honored the nation’s veterans Saturday, saying in a video message they are “this country’s greatest national treasure.”

“On this wonderful Veterans Day, I want to express the incredible gratitude of the entire American nation to the millions and millions of veterans that bravely defended our nation in uniform, and the strong families whose unwavering love and support allowed you to answer the call of duty,” Trump said in the video that was posted on Twitter.

“We applaud your service, salute your sacrifice, and pay tribute to your profound patriotism and love of our country.” #VeteransDay,” a White House Twitter posting said.

The president’s recorded remarks were released while he is on 12-day, five-nation Asian tour.

Vice President Mike Pence participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington Nation Cemetery just south of Washington to honor the nation’s 20 million military veterans.

“There is a day in the spring when we remember those who served and did not come home, but today, Veteran’s Day, is the day when all across America, in gatherings large and small, we pause to remember those who served and did come home.”

Pence and several dozen volunteers gathered earlier at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington to give it a holiday cleaning. Orange buckets in hand, Pence and his wife spent about 40 minutes wiping down the face of the memorial’s wall engraved with the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. service members who died in the Vietnam War. The group was joined by National Park ranger James Pierce, who lost a leg while serving with the North Carolina Army National Guard in Afghanistan.

First Lady Melania Trump paid tribute to veterans Friday as she visited military families at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. She made a refueling stop there on a flight back to Washington after spending the last week with her husband in China and South Korea.

Origin of holiday

Service members are honored annually on Veterans Day, November 11, the anniversary of the end of World War I. It was originally proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson as Armistice Day in 1919 and became a U.S. federal holiday in 1938. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill in 1954 that changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day so that all veterans could be honored.

Of the 20 million veterans in the U.S., more than 4.5 million receive some form of disability compensation from the federal government, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. More than 609,000 veterans are classified as 100 percent disabled. Nearly 277,000 veterans receive pensions from the federal government.

Nearly 40,000 veterans are spending this Veterans Day without a home to live in, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates another 1.4 million veterans are at risk of being homeless.

 
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The United States and South Korea started joint naval exercises Saturday that will involve three U.S. aircraft carriers in what military officials describe as a clear warning to North Korea.

The four-day drills that began in waters off South Korea’s eastern coast come as President Donald Trump continues a visit to Asia that has been dominated by discussions over the North Korean nuclear threat.

The battle groups of the USS Ronald Reagan, the Theodore Roosevelt and the Nimitz will successively enter the exercise area during the drills that run until Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The three carriers will be likely together in the drills around Monday, according to a South Korean military official, who didn’t want to be named, citing office rules.

The exercises will also involve 11 U.S. Aegis ships and seven South Korean naval vessels, including two Aegis ships. The Aegis technology refers to missile defense.

Show of force

They will aim to enhance combined operation and aerial strike capabilities and also display “strong will and firm military readiness to defeat any provocation by North Korea with dominant force in the event of crisis,” Seoul’s military said in a statement.

It’s the first time since a 2007 exercise near Guam that three U.S. carrier strike groups are operating together in the Western Pacific, according to the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet. The U.S. carriers will also participate in separate exercises with three Japanese destroyers on Sunday, according to Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The United States has been sending its strategic assets, also including long-range bombers, to the region more frequently for patrols or drills amid accelerating North Korean efforts to expand its nuclear weapons program.

In recent months, North Korea has tested intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. mainland with further development and has conducted its most powerful nuclear test. It also flew two new midrange missiles over Japan and threatened to launch them toward Guam, a U.S. Pacific territory and military hub.

President visiting Asia

Trump continued his tough talk against Pyongyang on Friday in a speech to business leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam, saying that the region’s future “must not be held hostage to a dictator’s twisted fantasies of violent conquest and nuclear blackmail,” referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump had also delivered a sharp warning to North Korea in a speech at South Korea’s parliament on Wednesday, telling the country: “Do not underestimate us. And do not try us.”
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U.N. officials say the United States and Italy have organized an informal U.N. Security Council meeting on Venezuela aimed at preventing the crisis in that country from turning into a security threat.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley will chair the informal meeting Monday, which will include addresses from U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein and Organization of American States Secretary-General Luis Almagro.

A note circulated to council members about the meeting said it will provide an opportunity “to discuss the role the international community and regional organizations can play in seeking a political solution and facilitating humanitarian access to those affected by the tensions.”

The meeting comes as Venezuela faces the possibility of defaulting on its debt. On Friday, a committee of Venezuelan creditors postponed until next week a decision on whether state oil company PDVSA has officially defaulted on its debt payments.

“As the Venezuelan economy continues to crumble, the situation will likely only worsen, especially as the country is at risk of defaulting on its debt,” the U.N. note said.

The statement also said that over the past six months, more than 500,000 Venezuelans have fled political turmoil in the country, as well as the soaring inflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine.

The U.N. Security Council is also expected to hear from lawyer Julio Henriquez, the coordinator of the Foro Penal human rights organization, and Joseph Donnelly, of aid group Caritas International.

Haley is urging the U.N. Security Council to turn its attention to the situation in Venezuela, which has until now maintained that regional organizations were best suited to address the crisis.

Venezuela’s government has faced international criticism after the country’s Supreme Court took away most of the powers of the opposition-controlled congress and imposed a new constitutional assembly with broad authority.
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The Washington Post is reporting that the body of 25-year-old La David Johnson, one of the four U.S. servicemen killed last month in Niger by militants, was found with arms bound, apparently executed, according to villagers.

The Post said Friday that two villagers in the remote village of Tongo Tongo told reporters some children found Johnson’s remains Oct. 6, two days after the attack that killed the four U.S. servicemen and five Nigerien soldiers.

When Johnson was found, he was lying face down, there was a wound to the back of his head and his arms were bound with rope, raising the possibility that Johnson had been taken captive by the attackers, villagers told the Post.

The Pentagon has said the attackers are suspected to have been affiliated with Islamic State.

Village chief Mounkaila Alassane confirmed to the Post in a telephone interview that Johnson’s body was found without his shoes, and speculated that the back of the Army sergeant’s head had been smashed with a heavy object, such as a hammer.

A U.S. official who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity said Johnson’s head had indeed been damaged but denied that his hands were tied. He cautioned against drawing any conclusions until the investigation into the incident is complete.

The account, if true, could help explain why Johnson’s body was found two days later than the bodies of his three compatriots, who were discovered just hours after the attack — one inside a pickup and two more on the ground, one clutching a walkie-talkie.

Earlier this month, however, a U.S. official told VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb there was “no indication” that Johnson was ever in the custody of hostile forces.

Johnson’s fellow soldiers killed in the attack were Bryan Black, 35; Jeremiah Johnson, 39; and Dustin Wright, age 29.

The attack has come under intense scrutiny in the United States, where the Pentagon’s initial account of the attack has been questioned. Lawmakers have complained that they received insufficient or conflicting information on the details of the incident.

Pentagon authorities are investigating.

The U.S. military is helping Niger deal with threats by members of Islamic State and al-Qaida, but deaths of U.S. servicemen in Niger are rare.
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