Finest Botticelli in private hands sells for a record US$92 million, nearly 800 per cent up on previous highest price for a painting by the Renaissance artist

Italian painter’s Young Man Holding a Roundel had been in the hands of late real estate developer Sheldon Solow, who bought it in 1982 for US$1.3 million

Botticelli is like Michelangelo and da Vinci, says one dealer in old masters, and adds: ‘It’s so rare to find a painting like this in great condition’

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An art handler at Sotheby’s hangs Botticelli’s Young Man Holding a Roundel, which sold in New York for US$92.2 million, smashing the previous auction record for a work by the Italian Renaissance artist. It is considered one of Botticelli’s finest portraits. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:20am, 29 Jan 2021Updated: 11:20am, 29 Jan 2021

Auction house Sotheby’s sold an impeccably preserved painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli for US$92.2 million in New York, a 787 per cent increase from the artist’s previous, 2013 auction record of US$10.4 million.

The painting, Young Man Holding a Roundel, was executed around 1480 and depicts an elegant young man lightly holding a roundel of a saint. For the past 40 years, it had been in the possession of the late real estate developer Sheldon Solow, who bought the work in 1982.

Over time, the billionaire slowly donated fractions of the painting to his private foundation; at the time of the sale, his foundation owned at least 99 per cent of the painting, saving the Solow family some US$33 million in capital gains taxes.

Solow, who died in November at the age of 92, bought the work for US$1.3 million, meaning the sale realised an appreciation of about 6,992 per cent.

The roundel of a saint in Botticelli’s Young Man Holding a Roundel. This painting was sold for US$92.2 million on January 28. Photo: AP

The painting is widely considered the finest Botticelli in private hands. “I deal in this period, and it’s so rare to find a painting [like this] in great condition,” says Fabrizio Moretti, the founder of Moretti, an old masters gallery in London in Britain. “This is an occasion to buy something you’ll never find again.”