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Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a young man holding a roundel, ca. 1470–80. Courtesy of Sotheby’s. One of the last privately owned Sandro Botticelli paintings hit the auction block this year and made a splash doing so. Portrait of a young man holding a roundel started the year off on a high note when it sold for $92.1 million at a January Sotheby’s sale, a more than ninefold increase over the Early Renaissance painter’s previous record of $10.4 million, achieved in 2013. The piece came from the collection of the late real estate mogul Sheldon Solow, who bought the work for $1.3 million at a Christie’s auction in 1982. Roundel’s stratospheric sale not only made it Botticelli’s new auction record: The work is now also the second-most expensive Old Master painting ever sold, trailing only Leonardo’s earth-shattering Salvator Mundi, which is currently the most expensive artwork ever sold.
The Most Expensive Artworks Sold in 2021
Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a young man holding a roundel, ca. 1470–80. Courtesy of Sotheby’s. One of the last privately owned Sandro Botticelli paintings hit the auction block this year and made a splash doing so. Portrait of a young man holding a roundel started the year off on a high note when it sold for $92.1 million at a January Sotheby’s sale, a more than ninefold increase over the Early Renaissance painter’s previous record of $10.4 million, achieved in 2013. The piece came from the collection of the late real estate mogul Sheldon Solow, who bought the work for $1.3 million at a Christie’s auction in 1982. Roundel’s stratospheric sale not only made it Botticelli’s new auction record: The work is now also the second-most expensive Old Master painting ever sold, trailing only Leonardo’s earth-shattering Salvator Mundi, which is currently the most expensive artwork ever sold.