At a time of recession in the art market, Sotheby's auctioned a portrait by Sandro Botticelli, one of the most prominent Italian Renaissance artists. The masterpiece was expected to fetch $80 million.
During the past 20 months, no artwork sold for a sum near $100 million and auction news haven't made headlines recently, which means the phase of record sales we saw between 2015 and 2018 has ended. But, could this portrait featuring a handsome young man with long hair holding a disc hit a new price record?
"When looking at such painting, a very exceptional one, we should compare it with other masterpieces like the works of Picasso, Bacon, and Basquiat, which fetched jaw dropping prices in the few past years," said Christopher Apostle, Sotheby's senior vice president. Among these paintings was Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi sold for $450 million, way over the $100 million threshold.
Although it was painted over 500 years ago, Botticelli's auctioned portrait has been well preserved. It is not dated, but it is believed that Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi known as Botticelli (1445-1510), painted it in the 1470s or 1480s, the most productive period in his life. At the time, he moved to Rome at the request of the Pope to embellish the Cappella Sistina Church in the Vatican, and painted two of his most famous art pieces "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera."
The portrait auctioned by Sotheby's depicts the "Renaissance Era in Florence," explained Apostle, noting that "it was the era during which everything changed drastically in the West including intellect, arts, and literature."
The painting's value was estimated at $80 million, around eight times the price fetched by Botticelli's "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist" sold for $10.4 million in 2013. "This portrait is the most beautiful art piece we have ever seen in the market by Botticelli," said Apostle.
The portrait spent much of the last 40 years on public display in many museums since its current owner acquired it in 1982 for just 810,000 Italian liras ($1.3 million). If sold for over $100 million, it would be the first to hit such a price since Claude Monet's "Meules" auctioned for $110 million in May by Sotheby's in New York. "When a masterpiece is offered for sale, it prompts people to buy it even in the hardest economic situations," said Apostle.
