Last Thursday, the painting ‘Young man holding a medallion’ painted by Sandro Botticelli was sold for around 76 million euros. The auction was held at Sotheby’s New York headquarters and the final figure it exceeded the expectations of the company’s experts, who placed its cost over 66 million euros.
It is a canvas that it is in very good condition despite being around 540 years old and it is one of only three portraits painted by Botticelli that are in private hands. Its starting price was 57.6 million euros, and being a highly valued piece, heThe bid lasted just over four minutes.
Great appreciation
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the painting was in a private collection, but in 1982 it was the last time it went up for auction. On that occasion, it was sold by £ 810,000 (around 1.5 million euros due to inflation), which gives an idea of the revaluation that the work has had.
Christopher Apostle, director of the department of Grand Masters at Sotheby’s in New York, highlighted the exceptional nature of the piece: “The last time It was released in 1982. Before that it was in a private collection from the beginning of the 20th century, and before that in another from the late 18th century, we believe. So you don’t see it very often. “
“In my 30 years of professional career, I’ve never had a Botticelli that comes close to the quality, the condition, the beauty, and the importance of it. “ Apostle added.
Medici family
Botticelli was a very famous artist who painted various members of the Medici family, great patrons of Florence Renaissance. The vast majority of his portraits are exhibited in museums since very few managed to survive the passage of time.
Other quoted parts
The piece has been sold in the auction week that Sotheby’s dedicates to the great masters of art history. In addition to Botticelli’s painting, the work was offered ‘Abraham and the Angels’, by Rembrandt, valued between 16 and 25 million euros, and the sculpture ‘Autumn’, by Gian Lorenzo and Pietro Bernini, with an estimated cost between 6 and 10 million euros.