The works of Botticelli and Fra Bartolomeo sold at Christie’s for record prices

NEW YORK. At Christie’s auction of Renaissance art objects, the painting "Madonna and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist" (1493-1495) by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was sold by a record for the artist price of 10.4 million US dollars.

Sandro Botticelli - Madonna and Child with a Young St. John the Baptist

Thus, the masterpiece of one of the most prominent representatives of the Florentine school and the Early Renaissance (1420-1500) was bought at a price that was significantly higher than the initial estimate of 5-7 million US dollars.

The work, also known as the “Rockefeller Madonna” (The Rockefeller Madonna), was named so one of its previous owners, the billionaire and philanthropist John Rockefeller (John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1874-1960), who found her in 1931. After his death, the canvas was inherited by his son, Winthrop Paul Rockefeller (Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, 1912-1973). Finally, on January 8, 1981, the canvas was sold at Sotheby’s (New York), and finally left the family of collectors.

Since 1987, for five years, made using the technique of tempera, oil and gilding, the painting measuring 46.3 x 36.8 cm belonged to the Japanese gallery Ishizuka, and on May 21, 1992 at Christie’s auction it was bought for 440,000 euros by an anonymous private collector, which remained in possession until January 30, 2013.

The last time the Rockefeller Madonna was exhibited from March 11 to July 11, 2004, was part of the exhibition Botticelli and Filippino: Passion and Grace in 15th Century Florentine Painting (Botticelli and Filippino, Passion and Grace in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Painting).

More than $ 42.6 million was raised during yesterday’s auction at the Rockefeller Plaza, and the highest price, $ 12,962,500, was paid for The Madonna and Child, owned by Baccio della Porta, aka Fra Bartolommeo, 1472-1517).

The collectors were also very interested in the paintings “The Virgin and Child with infant Saint John the Baptist sleeping” (Lucas Cranach II, 1515-1586), acquired for more than 1, 76 million US dollars, “Paintings of St. Benedict” (Saint Benedict receiving Maurus and Placidus) by Raffael (Raffaello Sanzio, 1483-1520), bought back for more than 1.2 million US dollars, and a plot on the biblical story “Death army of the Pharaoh in the Red Sea ”(The Submersion of Pharaoh’s Army in the Red Sea) from the Venetian genius Tiziano Vecellio (Tiziano Vecellio, 1485 / 90-1576), who changed tvennika little more than 850 thousand US dollars.

On January 29, also at Christie’s, a collection of engravings from the classic Northern Renaissance, made by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), was sold for $ 6 million. The highest price, 866.5 thousand US dollars, was paid for his famous woodcut "Rhinoceros" (The Rhinoceros, 1515).

Anna Sidorova