The Italian master’s painting, “Young Man Holding a Medallion,” was auctioned Thursday by Sotheby’s for $ 92.2 million.
The painting “Young man holding a medallion” was sold Thursday in New York for more than $ 92 million to a collector.
AFP
A painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli was sold on Thursday for $ 92.2 million (81.9 million francs) at a sale organized by Sotheby’s in New York. A record sum for nearly two years for a work of art sold at auction.
“When you look at a painting like this, which is so exceptional, you have to compare it to other masterpieces, paintings by Picasso, Bacon or Basquiat”, which broke records these days. years, argued Christopher Apostle, head of the Old Masters department at Sotheby’s, before the sale.
Unknown ephebe
“Young man holding a medallion” represents a young ephebe with long hair. His identity is not known, but specialists believe he could be someone close to the powerful Florentine family of Medici.
Although more than 500 years old, Botticelli’s painting is in an exceptional state of preservation. Undated, it is said to have been produced between the end of the 1470s and the beginning of the 1480s by the Renaissance painter to whom we also owe “The Birth of Venus” and “The Spring”, two of his most famous works. famous.
Property of a real estate developer
In possession of the New York real estate magnate Sheldon Solow, who had bought it 810,000 pounds (about 980 million francs) in 1982, it was nevertheless exhibited in many museums and for long periods. After Sheldon Solow passed away in mid-November, his family had for a time considered creating a museum in New York dedicated to the collection of the real estate developer, of which the young man with the medallion would have been the main attraction, before giving up.
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