Published on
20/05/2026 - 11:32 GMT+2
Long before he became one of the world's best-known Latin American artists, Fernando Botero sold his first work for two packets of cigarettes. More than seven decades later, and almost three years after his death, that youthful watercolour is now returning to the art market at an auction in Bogotá.
The work, entitled 'La Plegaria' and painted in 1949, is regarded as the first piece Botero sold in his career and forms part of a sale organised by Bogotá Auctions on 21 May, which will also offer more than 120 works of Colombian and Latin American modern and contemporary art.
According to the auction house, the watercolour belongs to the formative period of the Colombian painter. "In this piece we do not yet see the exploration of volume that would characterise Botero's later work," the organisation notes.
