Diego Rivera painting sets record at auction
A Diego Rivera painting set a record Wednesday night for the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American artwork, fetching $9.76 million and taking the honor away from his partner Frida Kahlo.
An expert restores a mural by Diego Rivera, whose painting 'The Rivals' now holds the record for the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American artwork
The colorful painting entitled “Los Rivales” (The Rivals) and sold by Christie’s depicts two men at a traditional Mexican celebration.
Until now the record was held by a Kahlo work auctioned in 2016 for $8 million. The 1939 painting is called “Dos desnudos en el bosque (La tierra misma),” which translates as “Two Nudes in the Forest (The Earth Itself).”
A Rivera work also holds the record for most paid ever for a Latin American piece of art, not just at auction.
That work, which the Mexican artist completed in 1928, went to a private Argentine collector, Eduardo Constantini, for $15.7 million in 2016. It was entitled “Baile en Tehuantepec.” Baile means dance.
The website ARTnews said “The Rivals” went to an unnamed collector bidding by phone.
For more news your way
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.