Young man Sandro Botticelli holds round
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Text size
The rare 15th-century painting A young man holding a round by Italian painter Sandro Botticelli sold for a whopping $ 92.2 million, including taxes, at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday morning.
The price achieved makes it the second most valuable Master Paintings ever sold at auction, and just over it by Leonardo da Vinci
Salvator Mundi, which received $ 450.3 million at the Christie’s auction in 2017.
The price also set an auction record for the Renaissance master, and the previous record was the $ 10.4-million sale of The Rockefeller Wolf at Christie’s in 2013.
Oliver Barker, the auctioneer in charge of the auction in London, opened the bid for the painting, lot number 15, at $ 70 million. After several minutes of bidding, an Asian collector, represented by Sotheby’s Russian desk expert in London, Lilija Sitnika, received the successful bid of $ 80 million at the hammer.
“As new today as it was painted 550 years ago is Botticelli Young man has cast a spell on everyone who has seen it, ”George Wachter, Sotheby’s American chairman, said in a statement. “While the price achieved is the second highest ever for an Old Master Painter, this is a work that spans time and divisions. Now we know about the price of beauty. ”
It was also the second painting to produce more than $ 80 million since Sotheby’s launched the livestream sales format, which allows collectors around the globe to apply through experts in Sotheby’s galleries. London and New York by phone or online. In June 2020, tripodch Francis Bacon was inspired by Greek playwright Aeschylus
Oresteia sold for $ 84.6 million.
A young man holding a round, painted by Botticelli in the late 1470s or early 1480s, depicts a noble presenter holding a circle, in which a saint was painted in the manner of the work of the Sienese artist Bartolommeo Bulgarini.
The painting, one of a dozen possible paintings by the early Renaissance artist famous for painting Primavera and Birth of Venus, was last sold on the market for £ 810,000 (US $ 1.3 million) at an auction at Christie’s in London in 1982. This time, it was offered for sale from the collection of Sheldon Solow, a New Property developer The late York, who died in November at the age of 92.
Several other auction records were completed in the first part of Sotheby’s sale of major photography and sculpture. Luca della Robbia was relieved of Madonna and the Baby, created around 1450, sold for $ 2 million, doubling the high presale estimate; Master Marradi Death of Lucretia at Banquet Lucius Junius Brutus sold for more than $ 1 million, against a presale high estimate of $ 600,000.
However, another mainstay, Rembrandt’s
Abraham and the Angels, was taken out of the auction, Barker announced before the auction.
Offered from the collection by Mark Fisch, a trustee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, it was estimated to be worth between $ 20 million and $ 30 million.
“The photo was taken back after discussions with the director,” said Sotheby’s. “It’s a beautiful work – one of the artist’s favorite ever to hit the market – and it was well-received by audiences around the world before it was sold. . ”
The 40-plus crane sale on Thursday totaled $ 114.5 million, beating estimates between $ 100 million and $ 110.2 million, Sotheby’s said.
The second phase of a major sale of photography and sculpture is open for online applications until the end of this month.