January 28, 2021
$92 Million for a Renaissance Face: Botticelli Smashes Records
In January 2021, Botticelli's 'Young Man Holding a Roundel' sold for $92.2 million in New York — one of the highest prices ever paid for an Old Master.
He gazes out at us across five and a half centuries, a serene young man holding a small gilded portrait. In January 2021, this Botticelli became one of the most expensive Old Masters ever sold, fetching $92.2 million at Sotheby's New York.
It is one of only a handful of Botticelli portraits left in private hands — the same artist who painted the 'Birth of Venus' and 'Primavera'. The buyer had transatlantic competition before securing it for an Asian collector.
What makes the figure even more startling: the painting last sold in 1982 for just $1.3 million. Few investments in history have aged so beautifully.
Image: “Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder - Sandro Botticelli” — Sandro Botticelli, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.