(ANSA) - NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 24 - A very rare portrait of a young man by Sandro Botticelli will be offered at auction on January 21st.
The painting in excellent condition depicts a man holding the tondo of a saint in his hand, a 14th century original by the Sienese painter Bartolomeo Bulgarini inserted in the table where the master of the "Birth of Venus" painted the portrait.
The painting will go on sale in New York with a starting estimate of around 80 million dollars, a record for the artist and for a Renaissance and Baroque painting.
"It is one of the most significant portraits of this period", said the auction house, citing the previous record for Botticelli, the so-called "Madonna Rockefeller" sold in 2013 by Christie's for 10.4 million dollars. Sotheby's has not revealed the identity of the current owner, identified by the Bloomberg agency as 92-year-old cement billionaire Sheldon Solow, the owner of the iconic 9 West57 skyscraper in Manhattan, who in turn would have bought it for 1.3 million in 1982. (ANSA) .
