On November 16th and 17th of last year, an an auction of Latin American Art was was held at Sotheby's in New York. The total sales for the auction were $20,221,938. The auction focused on retrospectives of Rufino Tamayo and Jesus Rafael Soto but also included works from many Latin American artists both past and present (Fernando Botero), mostly from the twentieth century. The auction was laid out commercially rather than historically as we read about in Sarah Thornton's chapter. The first day of the auction, in which Lots 1-59 were for sale, contained the most desirable works as they sold for significantly higher prices than those of the second day. The only work in the auction that sold for over one million dollars was Lot 6 at $2,210,500 which was "Watermelon Slices" by Rufino Tamayo, the feature work of the auction. During the second day, only a few works even exceeded $100,000 with the lowest sale of the auction being Lot 110 at $4,688 for "Naturaleza Muerta" by Emilio Pettoruti. One of Alfredo Ramos Martinez's most important and famous works, "La India del Lago" sold for $962,600 (Lot 14).
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Here are Tamayo's "Watermelon Slices", Botero's "Ballerina" and Ramos Martinez's "La India del Lago" sold at the Latin American art auction at Sotheby's last November:
