A rare portrait of Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli that was held in a private collection for over a century was sold for a record $92 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York. This amount was retrieved just four and a half minutes later after bidding two interested parties that ended a months-long campaign project. The seller of this portrait was discovered to be billionaire, Sheldon Solow. In the 1980s this piece of art was purchased by Solow for just $1.3 million, and now since the profit is considerably high, they might use the recently obtained finances to open a private museum in New York.
The identity of the man who bought the Italian artist’s work entitled “A Young Man Holding a Roundel” is unknown. The auction administration says the artwork dates back to the 15th century Renaissance and is one of the few portraits of Sandro Botticelli that has survived to the present day. The portrait is assumed to be an illustration of the Medici, the wealthy Florentine family.
This portrait is the most expensive work by Botticelli or anyone else that has appeared at Sotheby’s so far. Since 1982 it has been displayed in different museums such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. „It is widely considered by scholars today to be one of the artist’s finest and most significant works,“ – was said in the description of portrait at Sotheby’s.