Rivera work poised to set new auction record in NY

[May 22, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Mexican artist Diego Rivera's "Girl in Blue and White" is set to headline Sotheby's Latin American art auction in New York.

The 1939 oil painting of 10-year-old Juanita Rosas is expected to fetch between $4 million and $6 million at Wednesday's auction. Sotheby's says it is Rivera's most important painting to be auctioned in decades.

Rivera's current record is just over $3 million for the 1928 oil on canvas "Dancing in Tehuantepec," sold in 1995 at Sotheby's in New York.

"Girl in Blue and White" could even break the auction record for Latin American art, held since 2008 by Mexican Rufino Tamayo's "Troubadour," which fetched $7.2 million.

[Associated Press; By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS]

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