Sandro Botticelli's iconic goddess of love in his 15th-century masterpiece “Birth of Venus” has now become a “virtual influencer” in a new Italian tourism campaign.

Italian police say three Italian environmental activists glued their hands to the glass protecting Botticelli's masterpiece painting “Spring” in the Uffizi Galleries.

Sandro Botticelli's 15th-century painting called "Young Man Holding a Roundel" is displayed at Sotheby's on Sept. 23, 2020, in New York. The painting will go on auction next year and art watchers will be seeing if it fetches more than its eye-watering $80 million estimate, despite the pandemic. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)NEW YORK – A small painting by Sandro Botticelli sold at Sotheby's in New York on Thursday for $92.2 million, an auction record for the Renaissance master. The work, “Young Man Holding a Roundel,” from about 1475, depicts a young nobleman holding a round painting of a saint. Sotheby's exhibited “Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel” in London, Dubai, Los Angeles and New York ahead of Thursday's sale.

Sandro Botticelli's 15th-century painting called "Young Man Holding a Roundel" is displayed at Sotheby's on Sept. 23, 2020, in New York. The painting will go on auction next year and art watchers will be seeing if it fetches more than its eye-watering $80 million estimate, despite the pandemic. Botticellis 15th-century portrait of a nobleman in Young Man Holding a Roundel is the highlight of Sothebys Masters Week sale series in New York in January. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Sandro Botticelli's 15th-century painting called "Young Man Holding a Roundel" is displayed at Sotheby's on Sept. 23, 2020, in New York. Botticellis 15th-century portrait of a nobleman in Young Man Holding a Roundel is the highlight of Sothebys Masters Week sale series in New York in January. Botticelli’s 15th-century portrait of a nobleman in “Young Man Holding a Roundel” is the highlight of Sotheby’s Masters Week sale series in New York in January. The last painting to achieve that level at auction was Claude Monet’s “Meules” at Sotheby’s New York in 2019, going for $110 million. Who the young man depicted has been lost to history as well as why he holds the roundel.