Botticelli portrait sells for $92 million

A rare Botticelli portrait sold for $92.2 million at auction at Sotheby’s in New York on Thursday, a world record for any work by the Italian artist. The Renaissance artist’s Young Man Holding a Roundel is one of only around a dozen of his portraits known to survive today. Sandro Botticelli’s large-scale “Birth of Venus” and “Primavera” paintings are displayed in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. The $92.2 million price at the auction, conducted by bidders on the phone and online, included a buyer’s premium. The identity of the buyer was not immediately known. The 15thcentury work shows an unknown young man, likely a member of Florence’s elite, dressed in a simple tunic with a blue sky behind him and holding a roundel, or medallion. , The painting had carried a presale estimate of $80 million.