Latin American Auction Results

The Latin American auctions in New York brought about the highest totals in the field since its beginning in 1979. Sotheby’s totaled $23,001,200 and Christie’s $16,327,520. Wifredo Lam made new records with his work on paper from 1944, which made the cover of the Christies’s Catalog and sold for a total of $1,304,000. Fernando Botero obtained the highest auction record for a living Latin artist also at Christie’s when his painting The Musicians from 1979 sold for $2,032,000, a record that was duplicated at Sotheby’s when another painting with the same theme, Four Musicians, from 1984 sold for the same amount. Sotheby’s also holds the record for Fernando Botero’s sculpture which was achieved by the bronze Bird, from 1988 that sold for $1,052,000. Sotheby’s top lot was the most expensive for the season. Frida Kahlo’s Roots, a well known painting from 1943, achieved a new record for any Latin American artist at $5,616,000, surpassing her prior record of $5,065,750 from 2000. Also at Sotheby’s Francisco Zúñiga achieved a world record for his bronze sculpture with Cuatro Mujeres de Pie from 1974 which achieved $3,712.000. Sotheby’s also achieved world record prices for Tomás Sánchez, with Gracia en la Cascada from 1992 which sold at $363,200 and Julio Ruelas for Vision de la Conquista which sold for $363,200.