Botticelli portrait sold at auction for more than $ 92 million

Botticelli portrait sold at auction for more than $ 92 million

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

Contributors Jacqui PalumboLily Smith, CNN

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

The 15th-century painting “Young Man Holding a Roundel” is the auction house featured the most expensive work of the Renaissance artist ever at auction, and the most valuable Old Masters work ever sold at a Sotheby’s.

The portrait was probably made in the late 1470s or early 1480s. The portrait was bought by its previous owner in 1982 for only £ 810,000 (a little over $ 1 million in today’s money). It depicts an unidentified young man holding a small circular painting called a roundel.

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

Botticelli recorded the work of a former artist in the round held by his unknown subject.

Botticelli recorded the work of a former artist in the round held by his unknown subject. Credit: Sotheby’s

“This painting is not only the largest Botticelli in private hands, but should also be considered the best privately owned Renaissance paintings,” Christopher Apostle, head of Sotheby’s Old Master painting department, said in an email to the sell said.
Sotheby’s valued the work as “one of the most important portraits of an era ever to appear at auction”, and Sotheby’s initially estimated a bid of more than $ 80 million. But the apostle also predicted that it “could very well be the next painting that would exceed the rare $ 100 million threshold.” If that did happen, it would be the first painting to reach a nine-figure auction since Claude Monet’s “Haystacks,” which grossed more than $ 110 million in 2019.

Although not as well known as Botticelli masterpieces such as’ The Birth of Venus’ and ‘Primavera’, the portrait sold on Thursday depicts a depiction of the core of Renaissance man, ‘Apostel said. “It has a very modern feel, mainly due to the amazing condition and environment,” he said.

How do art auctions really work?

Market rarity

Although celebrated during his lifetime, Botticelli’s legacy faded after his death in 1510. It was not until the late 19th century that interest in his oeuvre was rekindled.

Today, however, he is considered a key figure in the Western art tradition. A cube exhibition featuring about 40 of the painter’s works, which will open in September at the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris, is one of the most anticipated art exhibitions in 2021.

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

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

‘The Birth of Venus’ is shown in the 2016 photo at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. 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 still life paintings and portraits by celebrated European artists. The other striking fate, a rare biblical scene by Rembrandt entitled ‘Abraham and the Angels’, which had not appeared at auction since the 1840s, was one of four works that were pulled in just before the start of the sale.

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

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