A painting by 16th century artist Raphael that went for $325 four decades ago has sold at auction for a record £18.5 million.

Auction house Christie’s said the painting of Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of Florence from 1513 to 1519 when he died, was the most important Renaissance work to come to auction in a generation.

It was also the most important by the Italian Old Master, whose full name was Raffaello Sanzio, to sell in decades.

It had been expected to sell on Thursday for up to £15 million.

The buyer was a private collector. The previous auction record for the artist, dubbed the “painter of princes”, was £5.3 million, paid in 1996 for a sketch of the head and hand of an apostle.

The portrait shows a bearded Lorenzo de Medici, resplendent in gold and rose robes trimmed with fur, gazing haughtily out at the viewer.

It is one of only a handful of paintings by the Renaissance artist still in private hands.

The sale came a day after Diego Velazquez’s painting of Saint Rufina sold at rival auction house Sotheby’s for £8.4 million to the Fundación Focus-Abengoa of Seville, the painter’s birthplace.

That was the highest price paid for a Spanish Old Master painting at auction.

Posted: 07|6|07 at 7:08 am. Filed under: UK News.