RESULTS: Latin American Art Evening Sale, November 20, 2007 at Sotheby's Tonight at Sotheby’s, the evening sale of Latin American Art achieved a total of $15,235,00, the third highest total for an evening sale of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s
News-Antique.com - Nov 22,2007 - Tonight at Sotheby’s, the evening sale of Latin American Art achieved a total of $15,235,00, the third highest total for an evening sale of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s, with 64% of sold lots exceeding their high estimates. The top lot was Fernando Botero’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe from 1969, lot 8, which achieved a price of $1,329,000.
Rufino Tamayo’s Tres Personajes from 1970, which had been stolen twenty years ago and was fortuitously recovered and returned to its rightful owner, sold for $1,049,000 to a Private American Collector through a Sotheby’s representative on the phone. There was heated bidding for seminal works by two female Surrealist artists: Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. Carrington’s El Bano, lot 12, sold for $541,000 and Varo’s Au Bonheur des Dames (Au Bonheur des Citoyens), lot 10, sold for $881,000.
Lot 25, David Alfaro Siqueiros’ Niño Tarahumara, sold for $529,000 after extensive bidding, breaking the previous artist record of $363,000, which was set in 1989. This recently rediscovered work, which is from the same period as the Siqueiros works in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, was last exhibited in New York the 1940s and had been known only through black and white photos for many years.
Eight artist records were set tonight. In addition to the record set for a work by David Alfaro Siqueiros at auction, artist records were set for Antonio Rodríguez (first time at auction), Jesús Guerrero Galván, Jean-Baptiste Louis de Gros, Armando Reverón, Alejandro Otero, Léon Ferrari, and Rosângela Rennó.
Carmen Melian, head of the Latin American Art department at Sotheby’s, said, “Tonight’s sale achieved over $15
million, the third highest evening sale of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s. We saw strong prices for works by Fernando
Botero and Rufino Tamayo, and we were pleased to see excitement for works by Contemporary artists Otero and
Soto, indicative of the direction in which the market is moving. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to sell
Tamayo’s Tres Personajes from 1970, which had been stolen twenty years ago and which was fortuitiously recovered and returned to its rightful owner. We saw museums, private collectors and dealers actively bidding in this sale, and there was continued crossover interest from the Contemporary and Impressionist markets, indicating an ever-widening geographic base of buyers.”
