NEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Colombian artist Fernando
Botero's "Horse" sculpture was the highlight of Christie's Latin
American auction, which also set a record for Cuban-born artist
Tomas Sanchez.
Botero's 1999 bronze work with dark brown patina, fetched
$938,500 at the sale late on Tuesday and Sanchez's 2005 acrylic
on canvas "Buscador de Paisajes," (Landscape Searcher), sold for
$626,500, Christie's said.
"The energetic, selective market for Latin American art was
highlighted by modern masters such as Botero," said Virgilio
Garza, the auction house's Latin American art chief, of the sale
which totaled $13.6 million for 61 works of the 79 on offer.
A 1981 Botero painting, "Nun Eating an Apple," which
Christie's described as a whimsical representation of Original
Sin, showing a portly nun with a bible in her left hand and the
forbidden fruit in her right, went for $602,500.
"The apple can represent temptation," Garza explained. "She
looks like she's almost being caught, with her eyes glancing
outside the frame."
Sanchez's record-setting work shows a miniscule man
contemplating an overwhelming forest. Willowy trees form a
canopy over a creek and a patch of light blue sky and a pink
stripe on the horizon shine through breaks in the foliage.
Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's 1970 oil and sand on canvas
"Tres personajes en un interior" (An Interior with Three
Characters) was another highlight of the sale. It sold for
$698,500.
A Diego Rivera painting, "Portrait of Linda Christian," was
another favorite, fetching $578,500. It was painted in 1947, the
year before the Hollywood actress married actor Tyrone Power and
played opposite Johnny Weissmuller in his last Tarzan film,
"Tarzan and the Mermaids."
Christian, who was born in Tampico, Mexico, and died last
year, also played a Bond girl in the 1954 television version of
the Ian Fleming novel "Casino Royale."
Among Brazilian works, Ibere Camargo's 1957 oil on canvas
"Jogos de Carreteis I" (Set of Spools I) set an auction record
for the artist, going for $422,500, about triple its $120,000 to
$180,000 pre-sale estimate.
Other records were set for Cuban-born Carmen Herrera's
"Amarillo Dos" (Yellow Two), an acrylic on wood relief
sculpture, executed in 1971, which fetched $170,500, and for
contemporary Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, whose 1998
"Montana" (Mountain), a tapestry of painted woven fabric, went
for $103,300.
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Kenneth Barry)