NEW YORK.- Enthusiastic bidding brought the total of Sotheby’s evening session of Latin American Art to $7,249,600, firmly within the pre-sale estimate of $6.5/8.6 million, and with the majority of the top lots exceeding their estimates. Numerous times during the evening bidding wars broke out for particularly desirable works, such as José Clemente Orozco’s Prometeo , which was sought after by five bidders who drove the price to $534,400, a record for the artist at auction. Four bidders competed for Wifredo Lam’s striking Femme-Cheval¸ which surpassed a high estimate of $400,000 to bring $579,200. Auction records were also established for Raúl Valdivieso, Esteban Chartrand and for a work on paper by Remedios Varo.   

Kirsten Hammer, Director of Sotheby’s Latin American Art Department, commented, "We are very pleased with the results of tonight’s session which were characterized by enthusiastic bidding from all across Latin and South America as well as from the United States and Europe. Collectors were willing to compete for quality, works as evidenced by the record price achieved for Orozco’s Prometeo, despite the fact that it cannot leave Mexico. Tonight we saw a number of new collectors bidding as well as the return of established buyers who have not participated in many years, a continuation of the renewed confidence on the buyer’s side Sotheby’s saw in the sales of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art over the past two weeks."  

The top selling lot of the evening was an outstanding early work by Matta, which brought $792,000. Painted in 1938, the year before Matta arrived in New York, Morphologie Psychologique de L’Attente foreshadows the influence Matta would have on the New York School of artists such as Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock.  

Several works by Claudio Bravo commanded strong prices this evening, led by his Before the Game which sold for $433,600. Six works by the artist sold tonight to benefit the Museum of Fine Art, Boston brought a total of $685,200, exceeding a high estimate of $542,000. Chief among them was Bravo’s Self-Portrait which sold for $276,800. White Package from The Bill Blass Collection nearly doubled its high estimate selling for $220,800 against a high estimate of $120,000. The proceeds will benefit the New York Hospital AIDS Care Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Diego Rivera’s Paisaje de Toledo, an important example of the Cubist influence of Picasso, Braque and Cézanne realized during the artist’s visits to Toledo in 1913, was also among the top selling lots this evening, bringing $512,000.  

Of the sculpture on offer this evening, bidding was fierce for Sergio Camargo’s Relief No. 234, which soared past a high estimate of $45,000 to bring $209,600, and for Raúl Valdivieso’s Male Torso, which sold for $30,000 against a high estimate of $15,000.