A masterpiece from Sandro Botticelli has achieved the highest ever price for an Old Master at Sotheby's in New York.
Botticelli's 15th-century portrait of a nobleman, "Young Man Holding a Roundel," shattered its eye-watering US$80 million (NZ$111.29 million) estimate Thursday (overnight NZT) to sell for US$92.2 million (NZ$128.2 million).
The painting, one of the greatest Renaissance works ever to come to market, was last purchased at auction in 1982 for US$1.3 million (NZ$1.81 million).
Christopher Apostle, who has for more than three decades handled Old Masters and is now head of the division, said "a picture of his quality and this impact, this beauty, really hasn't been on the market in many years."
Opportunities to acquire a Botticelli - the artist behind such masterpieces as Primavera and The Birth of Venus - are very rare. The price achieved makes the portrait one of the most valuable of any era ever sold, and also the second most valuable Old Master painting ever sold at auction.
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