Latin American Uprising

NEW YORK—At the highly successful Latin American sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s earlier this month, the Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo seemed to be playing a game of hide-and-seek. Expected to be the top lot at Christie’s November 19 sale, the artist’s Trouvador (est. $2–3 million) was withdrawn at the last minute when a court ruled that Randolph College, the painting’s owner, could not sell it. Meanwhile, Tamayo’s Tres Personages (1970), the second highest lot at Sotheby’s two-session sale on November 20 and 21, was notable for being present at all. In a story that garnered tremendous pre-sale publicity, a woman found the painting, which had had been stolen from a Houston warehouse 20 years earlier, lying on the street in New York. The once-abandoned work sold to an American collector for $1,049,000 (est. $750,000–1 million). Not bad for a curbside pickup.

After the elusive Tamayo, the big story from the sales was the market for Latin American art itself, which is clearly on the upswing. According to experts at both houses, the market keeps expanding with new buyers, especially from America and Europe. “The market has more international demographics than it used to and I think that is here to stay,” said Virgilio Garza, head of Latin American art at Christie’s, who noted that about 40 to 50 percent of Christie’s sales went to European and American buyers. “I am very pleased that the market for Latin American art is booming.” Carmen Melian, head of Latin American art at Sotheby’s, explained that a further reason for the expanded market is continued crossover interest from contemporary and Impressionist markets.

Another trend to emerge from the auctions, according to Melian, was “a new look onto nonfigurative art.” This was exemplified at Sotheby’s by the high price paid for a cubist still life by Costa Rican artist Angel Zarraga ($157,000, against an estimate of $30,000–40,000). Melian attributed the growth in the market for nonfigurative art at least in part to recent museum exhibitions, such as “Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2004, and “Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s to 1970s,” which opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in June 2004 and then traveled to the Miami Art Museum.

Seconding the theme, Garza commented on the rising interest in geometric abstraction paintings from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Artists such as Antonio Asis from Argentina and Sergio de Camargo from Brazil used to be of local interest, but are now sought after internationally, he said.

Botero Botero Botero
If Tamayo was the sales’ mystery man, Fernando Botero was their ever-present star.

At Christie’s, the top lot was Botero’s Mujer Fumando (Woman Smoking), which sold for a record $1,609,000 (est. $400,000–600,000) to a South American collector. Four other Boteros also counted among the ten top lots. And even when a work by the artist failed to sell at auction, it still managed to find a home: The artist’s bought-in bronze sculpture of a cat (est. $250,000–280,000) sold immediately after the auction, according to Garza.

Over at Sotheby’s, the highlight of the November 20 evening sale was also a Botero, Dejeuner sur L’Herbe, painted after the famous Manet of the same name. This was the first painting by Botero to fetch over $1 million at auction, when it sold for $1,045,000 at Sotheby’s New York in 1991. This time it brought $1,329,000 (est. $1.4–1.6 million) from an American dealer.

The Numbers
The Tamayo mishap aside, the Christie’s sale was a huge success, bringing in over $28 million, just under the high estimate. The sale rewrote 12 auction record prices, including for artists Remedios Varo, Amelia Pelaez, and Julio Galan, and for a Botero sculpture.

Garza was particularly excited by the record price ($397,000, est. $40,000-60,000) paid for the sale’s first lot, a painting of a sleeping girl by Puerto Rican artist Angel Botello. He also noted the success of Alfredo Ramos Martinez’s Les Floreras (The Flower Sellers). The work sold for $1,273,000 (est. $400,000–600,000), making it the fourth consecutive picture by the artist to sell above the $1 million mark.