The auctions for Latin American Art

The auctions for Latin American Art started early this season with Phillips sale on May 23, a week ahead of the Christie's and Sotheby's sales. The Phillips offerings included a selection form the Alma Colectiva collection from Guadalajara which included seminal works of contemporary Mexican and Latin American art. The sale was a great success, totaled $5,194,750, selling 76% by lot and 88% by value with only 99 lots.

The auction established new world records for several important Latin artists: The cover lot, Contra Relevo (Objeto N.7) from Lygia Clark , 1959 marked an important turning point in the artist's oeuvre and was estimated at $600,000/800,000 but the persistent bidding of two contenders brought the price to an incredible $2,225,000, a new world record for the artist. Another highlight of the sale was Amelia Peláez classical Cubist inspired work from 1943, Las Hermanas, which had been exhibited in the 1944 exhibition Modern Cuban Painters organized by Alfred Barr for MoMa, where it had been illustrated in color in that catalogue that is a point of reference for important Cuban art of the period, all of which influenced buyers into spirited bidding, leaving far behind the estimated $250,000/350,000 to realize $569,000.

Gabriel Orozco also achieved a new record when his Naturalezarecuperadafrom 1990, a huge sculpture of volcanized rubber which carried an estimate of $250,000/350,000 was brought up to a new price level by telephone bidders that realized an amazing $509,000. Ivan Serpa also surpassed the estimated $50,000/70,000 for his beautiful Untitled from SerieAmazonica which aroused buyer's interest and spirited bidding that settled on $143,000. Willys de Castro did very well, affirming the strong market interest for Brazilian works, two of his pieces in the auction went above the estimate, ObjetoAtivo, from 1959-60 sold above the estimated $50,000/70,000 for $75,000 and his Untitled from 1958 realized $68,750 (est. $40,000/60,000). Also above the estimate was the result for Los Carpinteros when La lengua de la tierrafrom 2006 sold way above the estimated $15,000/20,000 for $50,0000, Gabriel Kuri'sAdult Dieperfrom 2003 had been estimated at $25,000/35,000 but strong, interested bidding brought the price to $47,500, Francis Alys compelling shoe and football sculpture had an estimate of $50,000/70,000 but strong competition settled the price at $81,250 .

Other artists that reached new world records at Phillips are OsGemeos with Glass House from 2005 which fetched $149,000 (est. $80,000/120,000), Damian Ortega with Auto Construcción, caja de velocidades, also from 2005 which was estimated at $60,000/80,000 and sold for $100,000.,JacLeirner with Names from 1982 which sold for $$52,500 (est. $25,000/35,000) and Abraham Cruz Villegas with his Untitled from 1994 which was estimated at $10,000/15,000 and sold for $25,000

The following auction was Sotheby'sale of May 28/29, whichhad 68.5% sold by lot, and 69.1% sold by value with 232 lots and an impressive total of $19,486,500. The highlight of the sale was the Composition Constructive by Joaquín Torres Garcia, a great monochrome painting from 1931 that carried an estimate of $700,000/900,000 and sold after fierce telephone bidding for $1,445,000. There were also new world records for Carlos Cruz Diez, when his Physichromie UBS Bosque which had been estimated at $500,000/700,000 sold for an incredible $845,000 and surpassed Soto's record to become the most expensive Venezuelan Contemporary artist in the market. The other world record achieved was by Arturo Herrera, when his Untitled from 2003 which had been estimated at $100,000/150,000 settled at $389,980 ...