The finest Botticelli in private hands sells for a record RM373mil

A Sotheby's employee poses for a photograph with the artwork 'Young Man Holding A Roundel' by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, during a photocall at Sotheby's auctioneers in London. Photo: AFP

On Thursday morning in New York, Sotheby’s sold an impeccably preserved painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli for US$92.2mil (RM373mil), a 787% increase from the artist’s previous, 2013 auction record of US$10.4mil (RM42mil).

The painting, was executed around 1480 and depicts an elegant young man lightly holding a roundel of a saint. For the last 40 years, it had been in the possession of the late real estate developer Sheldon Solow, who purchased the work in 1982. Over time, the billionaire slowly donated fractions of the painting to his private foundation; at the time of the sale, his foundation owned at least 99% of the painting, saving the Solow family some US$33mil (RM133mil) in capital gains taxes.