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The painting belongs to a billionaire in the real estate sector who had paid 1.3 million in 1982. The autograph of the portrait of a man is also disputed.
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The painting, which dates from the years 1470-1480.
Credits: Sotheby’s, New York 2020.
Here! I read that on the site of the monthly “Connaissance des arts”. But the news drags everywhere today. Sotheby’s has announced that the house will sell on January 24 in New York a “Portrait of a young man with a medallion” by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). The panel, which the house says in excellent condition, dates back to the years 1470-1480. The Tuscan artist then turned away from the conventional formula whereby effigies are made in profile, as on medals. He adopted the three-quarter length formula, avoiding the frontal gaze. This pattern is still often maintained today for photographs.
The work has the peculiarity of having at the bottom an older medallion, inlaid in the wood. A fragment of fourteenth-century painting. This is not a hapax (a unique case, if you prefer) in the Florentine corpus. We know of him a famous portrait of a man holding a gold plaque representing Como de Medici, called “the Ancient.” This is one of the few preserved effigies of Botticelli, as long as our man is the author. Some scholars speak of Francesco Botticini, one of his most gifted contemporaries. Botticini is still waiting for his great author and especially his exhibition. Although it went on public sale at Christie’s in 1982, the now-featured American painting does not appear in Ronald Lightbown’s reasoned catalog, published in our language in 1989.
An absolute masterpiece?
What is especially extraordinary about him is the price announced by Sotheby’s for his Masters Week star. Eighty million dollars. A dizzying figure, especially at this time. Christopher Apostle, who takes care of the “Old Masters” of the house, is confident. He speaks of course of absolute masterpiece. Its current owner, Sheldon Solow, however, had paid 1.3 million thirty-eight years ago. Here is which makes an impressive added value… In 2013, a Virgin and the child of Botticelli, a religious subject which is sold it is true nowadays more difficult, had obtained “only” 10.4 million.
One sure thing. Now 92, New York real estate developer Solow doesn’t sell out of urgent need. Last August, Forbes still estimated his fortune at 4.4 billion. More than enough to face the future when you’re 92!
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