LONDON.- An exceptional early work by Sandro Botticelli, The Virgin and Child enthroned from around 1470, lit up the saleroom, as no fewer than nine bidders - some traditionally collectors of Contemporary Art - pursued the work over an eight-minute bidding battle to a final sale price of £10M / $12.6M, well above the pre-sale estimate of £2-3m. Tonight's result sets a new benchmark for an early work by the artist at auction, and also sits among the highest prices ever achieved for a work by Botticelli.

Acquired by Lady Wantage in 1904, this Florentine Renaissance painting of the Virgin and Child by the young Botticelli has remained in the same family collection for over a century. Little studied and largely known only from black and white photographs, the painting was lost from view, its location often listed incorrectly, and largely overlooked in more recent monographs and exhibitions. The composition of the work bears strong similarities to Botticelli’s Sant’Ambrogio altarpiece of circa 1470, which is now in the Uffizi – considered not only the artist’s first large-scale painting but also one of his first altarpieces. Carried out on a smaller scale, this painting was likely intended for a patron seeking an intimate altarpiece for private devotion.

In the early 19th century, it was housed in the Convent of San Giuliano in Florence, and from there it went to a small chapel attached to a group of farmhouses in a village near Florence, where it was venerated at a convalescent home for the sick. It then passed into the family of Giovanni Magherini Graziani. The painting was sold by the celebrated Italian dealer, Elia Volpi, to Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd, Lady Wantage in May 1904 – and has been in her family since. Letters on the work’s acquisition have also been preserved in the family’s archive, shedding light on negotiations between Lady Wantage, her intermediary Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael, and Volpi.

“In 1904, a charismatic collector called Lady Wantage spent several months negotiating the purchase of this extraordinarily beautiful, contemplative early work by Botticelli. Having finally secured it, she took the painting home, where it has been admired by her and her descendants ever since. Unseen in public for nearly a century, it largely escaped the attention of leading scholars in the field. Now finally reemerging into the public arena, this exceptional painting has captured the attention of all who have seen it. Their enthusiasm was evident in the sale room tonight as the painting flew effortlessly over its high estimate, establishing a new benchmark price for an early work by one of the greatest masters of the Italian Renaissance.” --Alex Bell, Sotheby’s Worldwide Co-Chairman, Old Masters