Botticelli’s portrait sells at auction for over $ 92 million

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

Contributors Jacqui PalumboLily Smith, CNN

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

The 15th century painting “Young man holding a cockade” has become the Renaissance artist’s most expensive work to ever auction, and the most valuable Old Masters work to ever sell at Sotheby’s, the auction house said.

It is believed to have been produced in the late 1470s or early 1480s, the portrait was purchased by its former owner in 1982 for just £ 810,000 (just over $ 1 million today ‘hui). It depicts an unidentified young man holding a small circular painting known as a cockade.

The cockade itself 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 cockade held by his unidentified subject.

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

“This painting is not only the largest Botticelli in private hands, but must be considered one of the finest privately owned Renaissance paintings,” said Christopher Apostle, head of the Old Painting Department Master of Sotheby’s, in an email before the sale.
After presenting the work as “one of the most significant portraits of any period to ever be auctioned,” Sotheby’s initially estimated the auction to be over $ 80 million. But Apostle also predicted that it could “very well be the next painting to exceed the rarefied $ 100 million threshold.” Had he done so, it would have become the first painting to win a nine-figure sum at auction since Claude Monet’s “Haystacks”, which grossed over $ 110 million in 2019.

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

How do art auctions really work?

Market scarcity

Although celebrated during his lifetime, Botticelli’s legacy faded after his death in 1510. It was not until the end of the 19th century that interest in his work resumed.

Today, however, he is considered a key figure in Western artistic tradition. A successful exhibition featuring around 40 works by the painter, due to open in September at the Jacquemart-André museum in Paris, is one of the most anticipated art exhibitions of 2021.

Botticelli rarely produced portraits, concentrating most of his career on religious scenes and paintings from classical mythology. Only a dozen are known to have survived, almost all of which are now in museum collections.

Prior to Thursday’s sale, the auction record for one of her paintings was the $ 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" photographed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence in 2016.

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

“Young Man Holding a Cockade” was the star of Sotheby’s “Master Paintings and Sculpture” sale, which featured still lifes and portraits of famous European artists. The other notable lot, a rare biblical scene by Rembrandt titled ‘Abraham and the Angels’, which had not appeared at auction since the 1840s, was one of four works withdrawn just before the auction began.

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

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