A Deep-Pocketed Art Collector Just Dropped More Than $92 Million

A Deep-Pocketed Art Collector Just Dropped More Than $92 Million at Sotheby’s on This Pristine Botticelli Portrait
The artwork is one of only three by the artist that remain in private hands.

A sterling 550-year-old portrait by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli that was the star lot of Sotheby’s Old Masters sale has sold for $92.2 million, making it the second-most-expensive Old Master artwork to sell at auction, according to the company.

The artwork, Young Man Holding a Roundel (circa 1444/5–1510), is one of only three portraits by Botticelli left in private hands. It led the first part of Sotheby’s Master paintings sale in New York on January 28.

After back-and-forth bids between Sotheby’s representatives in New York and London, the painting cruised passed its $80 million estimate and landed, finally, in the hands of an unnamed collector. (Pre-sale estimates do not include premiums; final prices do.) Sotheby’s declined to comment on the identity of the ultimate buyer. Read More