ArtCult - Les nouvelles du marché de l'art.-FINE RESULTS FOR LATIN AMERICAN WORKS IN NEW YORK-MARKET

The evening sale of Latin American Art held on November 23rd 2016 in New York at Sotheby's brought a total of $16,841,500, within the $14.5/19.9 million estimate, with 69% of lots sold.

The top lot of the evening was Sandías y naranja by Rufino Tamayo, which was formerly in the collection of film legend and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn. The work was the subject of a long contest between two telephone bidders before eventually selling for $2,292,500 (est. $1.2/1.8m).

A series of exceptional prices for Fernando Botero were led by the monumental bronze Man on a Horse from the collection of Marjorie S. Fisher, Palm Beach, which realized $1,824,500, well over the $800,000 / 1.2 million estimate whereas Homage to Bonnard, a large scale nude painting, sold for $1,392,500 (est. $600/800,000).

Frida Kahlo's Niña con collar realised $1,812,500. The whereabouts of the work, only known by a black and white photograph taken by the artist's friend Lola Alvarez Bravo, had been considered lost for decades until Sotheby's was approached by the owner this summer.

The Contemporary Art section of the sale brought strong prices for abstraction and kinetic art including Jesús Rafael Soto's Vibración negra which exceeded the $300/400,000 estimate to fetch $552,500 and Physichromie (Baroque) by Carlos Cruz-Diez which went for $492,500.

The previous day, Christie's sale of Latin American art fared even better since it yielded $22.7 million, with seven Cuban painters drawing record prices.

Although the total came in below the expected $30 million, it was still one of the auction house's largest for Latin

American art with strong results for the collection of Cuban works belonging to a single owner living in Florida.

"Sandias" ("Watermelons") by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, one of the most recurrent and most

important subject in his work, fetched the highest sale price with a final bid of $2.16 million.

Seven Cuban artists obtained record prices for their work -- six modernists and one contemporary -- including Mariano

Rodriguez for "Pelea de Gallos," ("Cockfight") which went for $1.087 million.

Other Cubans who achieved record prices for works were Esterio Segura, Fidelio Ponce de Leon (1895-1949) with

Joven con percera sold at $112,500, Carlos Enriquez (1900-1957) with "Heroe Criollo" sold at $967,500, Rene

Portocarrero (1912-1985) with Paisaje de La Habana (1961) which went for $295,000, Victor Manuel (1897-1969) for

Carnaval (Escena de comparsa) sold at $319,500 and Domingo Ramos.

Two other records were registered for Uruguay's Pablo Atchugarry with a marble sculpture executed in 2015 which

sold at $ 439,500, and Argentina's Guillermo Kuitca for his triptych "Deng Haag-Praha" painted on mattresses for the

Biennale de Sao Paulo in 1989, which feched $511,500. Fernando Botero's A Family, from the Collection of Ruth and

Jerome Siegel, sold for $1,267,500; Sergio Camargo's Untitled, went for $1,507,000, and Joaquín Torres-García's

Port of New York, realized $775,000.

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