Highest price ever for a Botticelli painting, $92.2m, paid at auction

Highest price ever for a Botticelli painting, $92.2m, paid at auction

Sandro Botticelli’s artwork, Young Man Holding a Roundel, has been sold in New York to an undisclosed buyer, setting a new $120m record for a piece by the Italian renaissance artist. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

A small painting by Sandro Botticelli has been sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $92.2m, an auction record for the Renaissance master.

The work, Young Man Holding a Roundel, from about 1475, depicts a nobleman holding a round painting of a saint. It is one of just three portraits in private hands by the artist best known for The Birth of Venus and Primavera.

“This is not only an exceptional painting, it is also the epitome of beauty, and of a moment when so much of our western civilisation began,” said Christopher Apostle, head of Sotheby’s old masters painting department in New York.

“Today’s result is a fitting tribute, both to the painting itself and all that it represents.”

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/29/highest-price-ever-for-a-botticelli-painting-paid-in-new-york-auction