Sandro Botticelli s
Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, (c. 1444/5 – 1510) at Sotheby s New York. Courtesy of Sotheby s.
A rare-to-market 15th-century masterwork by the Florentine super-star painter Sandro Botticelli,
Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel from circa 1480, led Sotheby’s live-streamed Master paintings and sculpture sale on Thursday morning for a record $92.2 million.
Bidding opened at an eye-popping $70 million and chugged along with the help of chandelier bids at $2 million dollar increments until a real one came in at $78 million, quickly followed by the winning $80 million hammer price. It went to an anonymous telephone bidder represented by Lilija Sitnika, Sotheby’s London-based senior client liaison working the Russia desk.