A rare Botticelli painting depicting Jesus Christ sold at auction for more than $45 million Thursday at Sotheby's in New York, a year after a record $92 million was paid for a work by the Italian Renaissance master. While the majority of works by Sandro Botticelli, such as the famous "Allegory of Spring" or "Birth of Venus", are on display at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, pieces circulating in private collections are much rarer.
After a seven-minute bidding battle among three buyers via phone, the painting "The Man of Sorrows" sold for $39.3 million, plus fees and commissions, for a total of $45.41 million. The price was above Sotheby's estimate of $40 million, and more than half the record set in 2021 for the Botticelli painting "Young Man Holding a Roundel," which sold for $92.2 million.
