'Rockefeller Madonna' by Botticelli fetches $10.4 million - Los Angeles Times
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‘Rockefeller Madonna’ by Botticelli fetches $10.4 million

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A Renaissance-era panel by the artist Botticelli depicting the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus and a young John the Baptist sold for $10.4 million at a Christie’s auction in New York on Wednesday. The work was labeled the “Rockefeller Madonna” by the auction house because it was once owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

AT THE AUCTION: Can you guess the price?

The sale was part of a larger sale of Renaissance work that brought in a total of $42.6 million. The Botticelli work was estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million. The piece, which is formally titled “ Madonna and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist,” has changed hands many times, most recently in 1992.

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Christie’ on its website said the piece was most likely created in the early 1490s. Botticelli, whose real name was Alessandro Filipepi, was a Florentine artist whose best known creation is “The Birth of Venus.”

The $10.4 million for the panel was reportedly an auction record for the Renaissance artist. The work traveled to Hong Kong last year in order to stoke interest among Asian art collectors.

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