The painter Tomás Sánchez is the best-selling Cuban artist at Christie’s auction

HAVANA, March 14  Tomás Sánchez, considered the most sought-after living Cuban painter, broke a sales record at the legendary Christie’s auction house,

by selling the painting “Arrival of the walker at the lagoon” for $1.8 million dollars.

This makes him one of the first Cuban artists to achieve millionaire prices in life, like Carmen Herrera, recently deceased.

In fact, the amount of the sale of the canvas, created in 1999, placed him in the third best-selling artist in the auction of Latin American art, held in New York this Friday, one of the main headquarters of Christie’s around the world.

In fact, only pieces by Mexican Diego Rivera and Colombian Fernando Botero have reached prices above one million dollars. “This news is an achievement for Cuban art, Cuban artists and their prestige with their extraordinary quality and hard work,” reflected a statement from the Tomás Sánchez Studio.

The final price for “Arrival of the walker at the lagoon” doubled the auction house’s initial estimate.

The first place in the auction was occupied by the Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, 89, with his sculpture “Man on a horse”, which reached a value of $4,320,000 dollars. The Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957), with the work “Laembroiderer”, which managed to sell for $4,140,000 dollars, was the second.

Artists such as Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) and Roberto Fabelo (1950), join the batch of works put up for auction and sold. Lam, for his part, was the ninth best-seller, with “Pomme Zombie”, for $756,000 dollars; and Fabelo took eleventh place, with “Perrerío”, for $579,600, and also broke his own record, which was $399.00 dollars, with his work “Journey to the Fantastic Garden”.