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The Leonardo-Mueller Conspiracy

January 9, 2019 by Marion Maneker

A local TV news producer lit up the internet this week with claims that Robert Mueller is investigating the sale of Leonardo's Salvator Mundi.

This commentary by Marion Maneker is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

Is Salvator Mundi Caught Up in the Mueller Probe?

I spoke with former CBS producer Zev Shalev for this examination of ties between Trump, Prince, Nader, MBS, Rybolovlev, Zamel and more. In the months to come, this may well turn out to be *the* story to follow in the whole Trump-Russia collusion nightmare. https://t.co/Aslr6jwztj

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 8, 2019

If you read one thing today, MAKE IT THIS 👇👇 #onething
Rybolovlev surfaces again
& MBS
& Erik Prince...
Rybolovlev overpaid ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ for his house, and later MBS overpays Rybolovlev for his painting.
WHY
WHY
WHY https://t.co/emRkkeGRO2

— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) January 7, 2019


The unexpected sale of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi more than a year ago has spawned an endless array of conspiracy theories. We’ve heard the work is a forgery; that the price was the result of a mis-understanding between two bidders who thought they were competing against a common foe; and, now, we’re being told “Salvator Mundi, may hold the key to the Trump-Russia investigation.”

That’s a big—and unsubstantiated—claim. It comes from local television news producer Zev Shalev on his personal reporting site, Narativ.org. The report has been repeated with great alacrity by Vanity Fair and on Twitter by people like MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, the Trump resister Seth Abramson and the art world’s Jerry Salz.

If one bothers read through Shalev’s long story it turns out Mueller has not looked at the Leonardo sale in any way. Dmitry Rybolovlev’s Palm Beach real estate deal with Donald Trump is cited as Mueller’s interest in the oligarch. As far as anyone from the Gulf States involved in the Leonardo sale, Shalev has to resort to this:


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