Peter Singer highlights what $450 million can do to help the poor and needy. This is the astronomical sum paid for the most expensive painting in art history - Leonard da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" - a painting that portrays Jesus as Saviour of the world. The piece of work costs $400 million - excluding another $50.3 million in commissions and fees. Intelligence assessments had identified Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the powerful 32-year-old Saudi crown prince, as the true buyer of the painting, with another prince acting as an intermediary.

Apart from waging a brutal war in Yemen since his father, King Salman ascended the throne in 2015, MBS made headline most notably with the impulse purchase of a 440-foot yacht for $500 million from a Russian tycoon while holidaying in Southern France two years ago. The deal with the owner was done within hours and Yuri Shefler vacated the yacht the same day. This drew criticism as he was helping push through drastic austerity measures at home, like slashing state budget at a time of low oil prices.

The publicity revolving aroung the purchase of the painting may prove embarrassing to the crown prince. As head of an anti-corruption committee, MBS ordered a month ago that 320 people be called in for questioning while 159 are being detained at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. Among them are princes and the Kingdom's richest businessmen and powerful officials. The bank accounts of 376 people have been frozen. Later a prince was released after agreeing an "acceptable settlement" with authorities of more than $1bn.

With the help of a "Charity Impact Calculator" the author highlights how $450 million can be spent more purposefully - at the service of humanity. He says when MBS chose to buy “Salvator Mundi” instead pf restoring eyesight to 9 million people, or buying 180 million bed nets, enough to protect 271 million people from malaria, he can not be serious about caring "very much about other people." But the ruling Saudi elites are known for rampant corruption. Another coincidence: MBS has once again done big business with a Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, who was the seller of "Salvator Mundi."

The author points out that in 2006, Warren Buffett "pledged to give most of his wealth – around $30 billion – to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help people in extreme poverty. That gift – the single biggest gift anyone has ever given to anyone for anything – doubled the r3esources of the foundation." To mark the 10th anniversary of Buffet's pledge, last year Bill and Melinda Gates "reported to him on what the foundation, together with other organizations, achieved to improve global health over that decade."

According to the Gateses, "every dollar spent on childhood immunization yields $44 in economic benefits, including the money that families otherwise lose when a child gets sick and a parent cannot work. Warren Buffett’s contribution to immunizations may be the best investment he has ever made."

Indeed, the $450 million could be spent more wisely on improving the health of millions in the developing world and making an impact on their lives, instead of paying for a painting, whose authenticity is still doubted by some. MBS seems obsessed with the image of Jesus, although conservative clerics find it un-Islamic, saying Jesus was merely a prophet. But he should have known what the Saviour had once said: “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”

It is an advice that a young, ambitious and impetuous leader will not take, because he knows what power is and what money can buy.