Botticelli’s portrait is sold at auction for more than $ 92 million

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

Collaborators Jacqui PalumboLily Smith, CNN

One of the last portraits of Sandro Botticelli left in private hands sold at auction for more than 92 million dollars (after commissions) Thursday morning at Sotheby’s in New York.

He became the 15th century painting “Young man holding a roundel” the most expensive work of the Renaissance artist that has ever appeared at an auction and the most valuable work of the old masters ever sold at a Sotheby’s, announced the auction house.

Believed to have occurred in the late 1470s or early 1480s, the portrait was purchased by its previous owner in 1982 for just £ 810,000 (just over a million dollars today). Represents an unidentified young man holding a small circular painting known as a round one.

The same roundel contains a miniature religious portrait of the 14th-century Sienese painter Bartolomeo Bulgarini, which Botticelli incorporated into the work.

Botticelli incorporated the work of an earlier artist into the roundel of his unidentified subject.

Botticelli incorporated the work of an earlier artist into the roundel of his unidentified subject. Credit: Sotheby’s

“This painting is not only the largest Botticelli in private hands, but should be considered among the best privately owned Renaissance paintings,” said Christopher Apostle, head of the painting department of the Former Master of Sotheby’s, in an email before the sale.
After billing the work as “one of the most significant portraits of all time it has ever appeared in an auction,” Sotheby’s initially estimated bids in excess of $ 80 million. But Apostle also predicted that it could “very well be the next picture that exceeds the $ 100 million threshold.” If it did, it would have become the first box to get a nine-figure sum at auction from Claude Monet’s “Haystacks,” which grossed more than $ 110 million in 2019.

While not as well known as Botticelli’s masterpieces like “The Birth of Venus” and “Spring,” the portrait sold Thursday “represents the quintessential Renaissance man,” Apostle said. “It has a very modern feel, thanks in large part to its amazing condition and surroundings,” he said.

How do art auctions really work?

Market rarity

Although celebrated during his lifetime, Botticelli’s legacy faded after his death in 1510. Only in the late 19th century did interest in his work rekindle.

Today, however, he is considered a key figure in the Western artistic tradition. One of the painter’s best works, which will open in September at the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris, is one of the most anticipated art exhibitions of 2021.

Botticelli rarely produced portraits, focusing most of his career on religious scenes and paintings from classical mythology. It is known that only a dozen or so have survived, and almost all of them are now in museum collections.

Prior to Thursday’s sale, the auction record for one of his paintings was $ 10.4 million paid for “Madonna and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist” (also known as “The Rockefeller Madonna”) at Christie’s in New York in 2013.

“The Birth of Venus” portrayed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence in 2016. Credit: Alberto Pizzoli / AFP / Getty Images

“Young Man Holding a Roundel” was the star of Sotheby’s “Master Paintings and Sculpture” sale, which brought together paintings and still life portraits of famous European artists. The other notable lot, a rare biblical scene by Rembrandt entitled “Abraham and the Angels,” which had not been auctioned since the 1840s, was one of four works withdrawn just before the sale began.

Other items pending sale as part of the auction house’s Masters Week series include a 17th-century sculpture by Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which will sell for $ 8 million to $ 12 million, and a triptych by Flemish painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst is expected to earn up to $ 3.5 million.

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