At Sotheby’s Old Masters sale in London, the top lot was Sandro Botticelli’s "Madonna and Child Enthroned"

At Sotheby’s Old Masters sale in London, the top lot was the painting "Madonna and Child Enthroned" by Sandro Botticelli. The picture sold for £10.9 million, more than four times its estimate, becoming the fifth most expensive work by Botticelli ever sold at auction.

The work was appearing at auction for the first time. For a long time the painting was considered a work of Botticelli’s workshop, but a recent analysis using radiography and infrared reflectography has confirmed that it is indeed an early creation of the master himself.

Sotheby’s New York holds the record for the most expensive Botticelli painting sold at auction, according to the Artnet Price Database. That record was set in 2021, when "Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel" (around 1480) sold for $92.1 million to an unknown buyer from Russia (if you are reading this, get in touch with me). It is also the record price for Old Master works, excluding Leonardo da Vinci

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At Sotheby’s Old Masters sale in London, the top lot was Sandro Botticelli’s "Madonna and Child Enthroned"

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

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