A worker at Sotheby's Auctions poses with Sandro Botticelli's ‘Young Man Holding a Roundel’ during a preview where it is expected to fetch in excess of US$80 million in Manhattan January 22, 2021. — Reuters pic
“This is a work that transcends time and categories. Now we really do know the price of beauty,” said George Wachter, co-chairman of old master paintings at Sotheby’s. Sotheby’s said the final price, including fees and commissions, was US$92.2 million after it sold under the hammer for US$80 million. Thursday’s price ranks alongside Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II,” which sold for US$87.9 million in 2006 and Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr Gachet,” which fetched US$82.5 million in 1990.
Art scholars were unaware of the painting’s existence until it first appeared on the market in the early 20th century. The auction house said “Young Man Holding a Roundel” is as significant as Botticelli’s “Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder” and “Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici.”