After mounting museum-level exhibitions and an eclectic exhibit tracing the history of the country at its new Breuer headquarters, Sotheby's is staging its first solo exhibition. On view until September 7, the exhibition highlighting the work of Colombian artist Fernando Botero was conceived in collaboration with Botero's family and built around works from their archive. Many of those works have never before been shown publicly, which feels perfectly aligned with Sustu's “New World” experience plan, which aims to transform its global headquarters into a high-end luxury and cultural destination designed to attract art collectors, luxury shoppers and a wider audience wherever they look. The Breuer location, in particular, has already drawn crowds twice as large as its former York Avenue location in the first half of 2026.
The focus of this Botero exhibition is the artist's relationship with New York, collecting works produced between 1960 and 1973 during his residence in Greenwich Village. “New York was very important to Botero. It is where he arrived during his constant attempt to refine his artistic language while remaining faithful to his creative ideas,” his family told the Observer, recounting how his journey around the world brought him to the city, starting what became a defining chapter in his life. “It was in New York that he met artists, critics, collectors, and museums whose influence would be instrumental in shaping his work. This exhibition makes that time visible, including works from our collection that have never been seen publicly before, reunited in the very city where they were created.”
Born in Medellín, Fernando Botero was ambitious, exhibiting at the age of 16 and having his first solo exhibition at the age of 19 while working as an illustrator for El Colombiano. A national art award allowed him to travel to Europe, where encounters with the Old Masters, Diego Velázquez and Vincent van Gogh led to influences ranging from colonial and pre-Hispanic art to Mexican murals and Colombian landscapes. After building a reputation throughout Latin America and Washington, DC, Botero moved to Greenwich Village in the late 1950s. A chance studio visit by MoMA director Dorothy Miller led to the discovery of the museum Mona Lisa, Twelve Years—the artist's first institutional purchase—helping connect him with dealers including Pierre Levai, Claude Bernard and Ernst Beyeler. He went on to produce major works such as Pope Leo X (after Raphael) again The President's Familywhile his sold-out 1972 debut at the Marlborough Gallery confirmed that his figurative style could thrive even in New York's Ab-Ex-dominated art scene.
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“Botero in New York” |
On view in Suthini are 25 paintings and drawings that chart this important period in Botero's career and highlight how he held fast to his artistic vision at a time when almost everyone else was moving in the other direction. Opposing what he described as “the tyranny of abstract art,” and largely disregarding existing aesthetic trends and modern ideals of beauty, Botero developed his unique and profoundly human visual language of rounded forms, voluptuous female bodies and typical urban characters. Although critics sometimes dismiss his exaggerated figures as unfashionable or too accessible, audiences respond to their warmth, humor, sensuality and a palpable sense of volume—qualities that defined the term “Boterismo.”
Included in the exhibition Monalisa and Trece Añosa closely related diagram Mona Lisa, twelve years old. This painting provides a flawed reinterpretation of Leonardo's master of sitting in an arguably Boterian visual lexicon. Also on view is a highly fragmented 1959 canvas, The Apotheosis of Ramón Hoyosnamed in memory of the famous Colombian cyclist Ramón Hoyos Vallejo, five-time winner of the Vuelta de Colombia, with a landmark program based on art history and pre-Columbian reference art. Other highlights include A picnic (1973), in which Botero's visual language expands into the landscape; Van Gogh-inspired Sunflowers (1977); and the green ones You are in Life with Watermelon (1976), which shows his undying devotion to his predecessors.
Botero's market experienced a remarkable acceleration after the pandemic, a momentum that continued to strengthen after his death in 2023. Artnet reported that its annual auction sales increased from $9.7 million in 2020 to $21.2 million in 2023, and reached $25.1 million in November 2024. Art. It works like A horse they fetched more than $4 million at Sotheby's, while paintings fetched multi-million dollar results at auction. Even in the most selective market, strong examples often exceed their ratings, ensuring the continued demand for museum-quality works.
Today, the market for Botero's work is mature but increasingly selective, according to di Stasi; “High-profile projects continue to perform strongly, especially those with clear quality, scale, solid foundation, and timeliness.” Demand tends to focus on large oil paintings from the late 1960s and 1970s, he adds, as well as figurative subjects such as public scenes, portraits, artists and still lifes. High-quality bronzes are also always in demand, benefiting from their public visibility, as many are installed as public sculptures around the world, while smaller editions are widely circulated at auction.
Botero's pieces are no longer only purchased through exclusive Latin American sales channels, and the buyer base for his work has become fully global. While Latin American collectors remain important, there is a strong participation in the US and European artist market, with growing interest from the Middle East and Asia. “Finally, prices have been strengthened by these latest auction results, confirming the continued international demand,” explained Di Stasi.
Botero remains among Latin America's most quickly recognized artists, yet her auction record remains modest compared to that of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and lesser-known postwar figures. His current high is $5.132 million Musicianssold at Christie's New York in 2023.
The fact that his worldwide recognition has not been translated into eight-figure auction prices may be partly attributed to the artist's wide output across paintings, drawings, bronzes and editions, as well as the significant resistance to accessibility and duplication of his image. The repeated presence of nudity in his work may also limit their acceptance in other markets, especially in countries like the US, where a new (and paradoxical) puritanism has taken hold. Botero properties, art galleries and auction houses are now actively remaking the work through exhibitions and secondary market offerings, both to strengthen its market value and expand its collector base.
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