Botticelli, the “Madonna del Magnificat” to be auctioned in New York: it could exceed 40 million dollars

A painting by Sandro Botticelli depicting the Virgin Mary with Child and Angels, which belonged to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allenwill be auctioned by Christie’s in New York: it will be one of the top-lots of the “Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection” catalog, which offers 150 works of art in two sessions on Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 November. The auction house expects to be awarded more than $ 40 million, thus making it one of the most expensive works in the estate which will be offered by Allen’s heirs, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The round, entitled “Madonna del Magnificat”, it measures 61 cm in diameter and was made by Botticelli at the end of the 1580s, at a time when his shop was flourishing. Christie’s experts believe that the panel was probably commissioned by a wealthy patron who intended to exhibit it in a private residence for devotional purposes. A similar example of the Renaissance painter belongs to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. The work has been in Allen’s private collection since 1999, when he privately purchased it for an undisclosed price. The “Madonna del Magnificat” it has been widely exhibited in museum exhibitions. She last appeared in the 2020 exhibition “Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces at the Seattle Museum of Art”. Before entering his collection, the painting was exhibited at the National Gallery in London on a long-term loan from 1960 to 1978.

When they re-emerge on the market, the few Botticelli paintings still in private hands can generate large sums. In 2020, the “Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Tondo” was sold from the collection of the late Sheldon Solow at Sotheby’s for a record $ 92 million.. Last January, Botticelli’s “Man of Sorrows” (c. 1500), a portrait of Christ with a crown of thorns, was sold for $ 45.5 million. If the “Madonna del Magnificat” reaches the esteem, it will be among the first three works of the Florentine artist sold at auction. The Botticelli will appear alongside dozens of paintings from Paul Allen’s collection, some of which are estimated at over $ 100 million.. The top lot will be Paul Cézanne’s “La montagne Sainte-Victoire”, which will be offered with an estimate of $ 120 million. Gustav Klimt’s “Birch Forest” will then be auctioned (estimate 90 million dollars): the work was part of the first solo show dedicated to the artist in Vienna in 1903. Vincent Van Gogh’s “Verger avec cyprès” will also be offered: it was painted in 1888 and belongs to the famous orchard series (of the 14 made, only 5 of these are in private hands). For this picture, the estimate is 100 million dollars. An estimate of 100 million also for “Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version)” by Georges Seurat: the pointillist masterpiece, one of the few in private hands, belonged to the collector Alphonse Kann, to whom Marcel Proust was inspired by Charles Swann, character of “La Recherche”. Proceeds from the sale will go to the philanthropic causes Allen set up before his death. The collection, which also includes works by Lucian Freud and Jasper Johns, is valued at $ 1 billion.