NEW YORK, NY.- Yesterday's evening auctions of Latin American Art in New York brought the strong total of $16,247,000, well within the pre-sale estimate of $13,230,000/18,585,000. Opening the evening was the dedicated themed sale Latin America: The Legacy of Abstraction, which totaled $6,713,000, was 89% sold, and saw Joaquín Torres-García’s Estructura ocre constructive soar over its high estimate to sell for $970,000 (est. $400/600,000). Other highlights included Jesús Rafael Soto’s Salon de Mai, which sold for $880,000, becoming one of the top prices for the artist at auction (est. $600/800,00), and Concetto Spaziale, from the peak of Argentine artist Lucio Fontana’s illustrious career, which fetched $598,000 (est. $400/600,000).

Immediately following, the first session of the Latin American Art Modern & Contemporary auction brought a total of $9,534,000 and was led by La Familia, the last and definitive version of Rufino Tamayo’s endearing motif, which sold for $3,010,000 (est. $1.2/1.6m). Other highlights included Les Oiseaux Voilés by Wifredo Lam, which fetched $1,210,000, El Balcón by Diego Rivera from The Goldwyn Collection which sold for $346,000, and excellent prices for Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Claudio Bravo, and Fernando Botero, among others.

Axel Stein, Head of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s commented: “With outstanding prices for Torres-García’s Constructivist paintings, a section of kinetic art led by Jesús Rafael Soto, and the wonderful Concetto Spaziale by Lucio Fontana, this evening belonged to the giants of Latin American Abstraction. Our total of $16.2 million included eight artist records, showing that Sotheby’s continues to expand the market for Modern and Contemporary Art from Latin America.”

Artist Records
Elsa Gramcko, Mateo Manaure, Nedo, Gerd Leufert, Francisco Salazar, Luis Guevara Moreno, Zilia Sánchez, Alexandre Arrechea

Medium Records
León Ferrari – record for a sculpture by the artist
Los Carpinteros - record for a work on paperby the artist