Diego Rivera art set record for Latin American piece

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom Rep. (AA) – Phillips auction house has set a world record price with a Latin American work of art by selling a Diego Rivera painting for $15.7 million, the company said Friday.

Dance in Tehuantepec was bought by the founder and president of the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires, Eduardo Costantini, in an auction, according to The Associated Press.

The price nearly double that of the Two Nudes in the Forest, a Frida Kahlo´s painting sold last month for more than $8 million at a Sotheby's public auction.

Costantini said he has wanted to buy the Diego piece for more than 20 years, but the painting has been out of public view since 1995.

The Argentinean collector plans to exhibit it at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the fall, in Madrid early next year before showcasing the piece at his museum, the AP said.

Dance in Tehuantepec is considered the most important work by Rivera in private hands outside of Mexico.

At 79 inches by 64.5 inches, it depicts pairs of folk dancers performing under a banana tree. It was created in 1928 and shown for the first time in 1930 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Rivera was a Mexican muralist of communist ideology, famous for painting works of high social content in public buildings.