New York.– A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo entitled "Raices" (Roots) broke the sales record for a Latin American work of art, selling for $5.6 million at a Sotheby's auction here.
The buyer, whose identity was not disclosed, made his or her winning bid by telephone.
The painting - 30 x 40 centimeters (12 x 16
inches) - depicts the artist reclining in a barren and rocky landscape.
From her torso emerge roots which burrow into the ground through which
her blood flows.
Kahlo completed the work in 1943 after marrying the love of her life - Mexican muralist Diego Rivera - for the second time after several years of separation and suffering.
The painting had remained in a U.S. collection for almost 20 years and was exhibited most recently in 2005 at a Kahlo retrospective at London's Tate Modern Art Museum.
The previous record for a Latin American art sale was set in 2000, when a buyer paid $5 million for "Autorretrato" (Self Portrait), also by Kahlo, who died in 1954, at another Sotheby's auction.
Earlier on Wednesday, at a Christie's auction here, Colombian artist Fernando Botero set a new record for living Latin American artists with the sale of one of his paintings for $2 million, while Cuba's Wilfredo Lam broke his own sales record when one of his works moved for $1.3 million.
Botero's 1979 work "Los musicos" was bought Tuesday for $2.03 million, including commissions, by a U.S. art dealer bidding by telephone at Christie's Latin American art auction.
The sale not only breaks the artist's previous record of $1.5 million, which he achieved in 1992 with the sale of "La Casa de las Gemelas Arias," painted in 1973, but also keeps Botero in the top price spot at auction among living Latin American artists.
Lam's enigmatic drawing "Sin titulo" (1944) was acquired by an institution for $1.3 million, far above the work's estimated value of $800,000.
Lam also broke his previous $1.2 million record for a drawing or sketch, which he achieved in 1998 with the sale of his 1943 work "La mañana verde." His auction sale price record for a painting is $1.3 million.
The drawing shows a feminine figure merging with plantations of tobacco and sugar and holding a knife that is flashing in the tropical light.
Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo's work also stood out at the auction, with "Naturaleza muerta con dominos" (1931), an oil on canvas which had been part of a European collection, selling for $531,200.
The work is a still life with symbolic and metaphysical overtones showing two blue light bulbs, several dominoes and a bicycle wheel.
