A Russian is believed responsible for smashing the record for a painting by Florentine Renaissance superstar Sandro Botticelli, spending $US92.2 million ($120.8 million) on an impeccably preserved portrait at Sotheby’s in New York, a 787 per cent increase from the artist’s previous, 2013 auction record of $10.4 million.
Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel was painted around 1480 and depicts an elegant young man lightly holding a roundel of a saint. It went to an anonymous telephone bidder represented by Lilija Sitnika, Sotheby’s senior client liaison on the auction house’s Russia desk. Sotheby’s would not name the buyer.
