NEW YORK, NY.- Today at Sotheby’s sale of Important Old Master Paintings in New York, a new auction record was established for the Renaissance master Titian when his A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria sold for $16,882,500 to a European Private Collector. That price exceeded the previous record of $13.6 million, which had held for 20 years. A Sacra Conversazione is one of only a handful of multi-figured compositions by Titian that remain in private hands, and is the most important to appear at auction in decades. The morning session ended with an outstanding total of $78.6 million, which is above the session’s high estimate of $74 million. In addition to the Titian, a number of remarkable and record prices have also been achieved this morning: Claude-Joseph Vernet’s monumental canvas, Grand View of the Sea Shore Enriched with Buildings, Shipping and Fig