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The Renaissance artist's "Young Man Holding a
Roundel" is one of only around a dozen of his portraits known to
survive today. Sandro Botticelli's large-scale "Birth of Venus"
and "Primavera" paintings are displayed in Florence's Uffizi
Gallery.
The 15th century work, which has also been known as "Young Man
Holding a Medallion," is expected to sell for more than $80
million at Sotheby's Old Masters sale in January in New York. It
has the highest estimate for an Old Master in Sotheby's history
and the auction house said it could well sell for more than $100
million.
"There are a number of artists that ... are Olympian really in
their genius. And Botticelli is one of those," said Christopher
Apostle, director of Old Masters paintings at the auction house.
"The estimate really reflects the quality, the condition, the
enormous rarity and the huge impact that a painting like this
has visually," Apostle said.
Fewer than 20 works of art have sold at auction for more than
$100 million. The last was Claude Monet's "Meules," one of his
celebrated "Haystacks" series, that went in May 2019 for $110
million, setting a record for an Impressionist work.
The world auction record for any painting was set in 2017 with
the $450 million for "Salvator Mundi," attributed to Leonardo da
Vinci.
Sotheby's said "Young Man Holding a Roundel" was acquired by its
present, unidentified owner, at an auction in 1982 in the United
Kingdom.
It shows an unknown young man, likely a member of Florence's
elite in the late 15th century, dressed in a simple tunic with a
blue sky behind him and holding a roundel, or medallion.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Daniel Fastenberg; Editing by
Richard Chang)
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