Mexican mural sells for nearly $7M at NYC auction

[November 19, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A mural by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo -- one of five exhibited in the United States still in private hands -- was sold Tuesday for nearly $7 million at an auction of Latin American art.

"America," measuring 13 feet by 15 feet, fetched $6.8 million, just below its pre-sale estimate of $7 million to $9 million, a spokeswoman for Sotheby's auction house said. The buyer's identity wasn't released.

The lower-than-expected price echoed the slowdown in the art auction market in recent weeks. The buying habits of wealthy collectors have been shifting as they confront the global financial crisis.

In May, Tamayo's "Troubadour" sold for $7.2 million at Christie's, setting an auction record for the artist and Latin American artwork. Frida Khalo's "Roots" previously held the Latin American record when it sold for $5.6 million at Sotheby's in 2006.

"America" is Tamayo's biggest mural, said Carmen Melian, director of Sotheby's Latin American art department. It was commissioned in 1955 by the Bank of Southwest in Houston, where it hung until the early 1990s. It was bought by an anonymous private collector in 1993 and has since been on loan at the Dallas Museum of Art.

"America" is an allegorical work depicting the heritage and cultural richness of the Americas. Its central figure is America, personified by a reclining female nude surrounded by natural resources.

[Associated Press]

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