Guillermo Kuitca and Fernando Botero at an auction

Guillermo Kuitca and Fernando Botero at a record auction of Latin American art in New York

A painting by Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca, "Untitled," from 1998, was auctioned last night for $94,500 in New York City as part of Christie's Latin American art sale - which also included works by the recently deceased Fernando Botero -, in an evening that raised a total of 13 million dollars.

The main lot of the auction was the oil painting "The Three Friends" by the Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo, which obtained $1,623,000, more than 160% of its estimate, while the sale of two works by the Colombian Botero also stood out, " In the Plaza", for which $1,332,600 were paid, and "Man Eating", which obtained just over 1 million, Christies reported in a statement.

The auction was planned before the news that the famous Colombian artist, recognized throughout the world for his sculptures and paintings of voluminous human figures, of humor and sensuality, died at the age of 91 in his residence in the principality of Monaco, last September 15.

Auctioneer Christie's live sale of Latin American art that concluded last night, featuring works by modern and contemporary artists from the region, had numerous bids, with bidders in the room, by phone and online, and reached a total of 13,200,030 dollars, achieving 102% more than its estimate, the auction house detailed.

Another highlight of the sale was Mexican muralist Diego Rivera's "Portrait of Anita Antunes (Diana Cazadora)," which sold for $693,000, the AFP news agency reported.

With prices much lower than those of its counterparts in the region, Argentine art was represented by artist Guillermo Kuitca's painting, "Untitled," an almost two-meter by two-meter acrylic painting, painted in 1998 that the author signed in the reverse and which sold for $94,500, without commissions or taxes, despite the fact that the estimated value was initially between $80,000 and $120,000.

It is a work that is related to the long fascination that Kuitca has felt for theater, a connection that arose, in the artist's words, "in part because of that idea of the world as a stage."

"I had formulated a kind of elementary axiom according to which nothing was possible in painting while, on the contrary, everything was possible in the theater," said Kuitca, who has captured in his works metaphysical maps and architectural plans reflecting on the way we locate ourselves in space and time.

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