Christie's Latin American art sale has concluded with some excellent prices for its top lots.
The one piece hoped to sell for over $1m, Fernando Botero's bronze sculpture Mujer Fumando, did so, close to the high end of its estimate range at $1.14m to a US bidder.
 Botero's Mother and Child |
That wasn't the only excitement of the night for the Columbian artist, as his painting Mother and Child sold for $614,500 - a world record for the artist for a work on paper.
Other works we focussed on: Rufino Tamayo's Mujeres and Wifredo Lam's untitled work sold on target at $698,500 and 662,500 respectively. Another work of Tamayo's, Pájaros - a painting of birds perching with a sinister feel to it - likewise sold for 566,500.
 Tamayo's Pajaros |
One work which did particularly well was Chilean artist Claudio Bravo's recent oil painting White, Blue and Yellow Papers.
Bravo is known as a master of light and texture, and his extraordinarily ability is displayed to the full in capturing the patterns within the scrunched up papers. The lot, estimated as low as $400,000 impressed bidders sufficiently for one to pay $722,500.
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"The extraordinary results achieved tonight across all categories - paintings, sculpture, and works on paper - indicate a comeback for the market" commented a delighted Virgilio Garza of Christie's.
