Salvator Mundi, the world’s most expensive painting, has failed to show up to a major Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre, despite a request by the Paris museum to borrow the controversial work.

The painting, which made headlines all over the world when it sold for $450m (£354m) at Christie’s in New York in 2017, was not at a press viewing of the exhibition on Friday marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death.

However, after months of speculation over its provenance and whereabouts, the curator expressed hope that it may yet arrive; the show opens to the public on October 24.

Salvator Mundi's buyer has been identified as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, who reportedly agreed that it would become a star of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. However, the display in Abu Dhabi was unexpectedly halted last year amid debate over its authenticity.

Some of the world’s leading Leonardo experts, including Martin Kemp, emeritus professor of art history at Oxford, insist it is genuinely the lost work of the master. Others have expressed reservations or have been downright dismissive.

Speaking to The Telegraph this week, the Louvre exhibition’s co-curator Vincent Delieuvin, confirmed that the museum had asked to borrow the work for the show and still held out hope it would turn up in the nick of time.