Tamayo’s ‘Troubadour’ Sets Auction Record
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Rufino Tamayo’s “Troubadour” set a world auction record for Latin-American art, fetching $7.2 million.
The 1945 painting, which depicts a musician strumming his guitar as two women watch, was acquired by an anonymous buyer, a Christie’s spokeswoman, Sung-Hee Park, said.
The $7.2 million bid on Wednesday easily eclipsed the previous record for a Tamayo painting, $2.59 million, and topped Frida Kahlo’s “Roots,” which sold in May 2006 for $5.6 million.
“This Tamayo is one of those things you only see once in a generation,” the head of Latin-American art for Christie’s, Virgilio Garza, who called the sale “historic,” said.
“Troubadour,” which was sold by Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va., had not been on the auction block for more than 40 years.
The school had hoped to sell it to raise cash for its endowment last year, but pulled it from auction when a group of students and alumnae obtained an injunction arguing that the once all-women’s college could not spend decades-old donations on co-education. The painting was donated in 1949.
