Despite the falling value of the Colombian peso and political unease over recent elections, dealers approached by The Art Newspaper reported plenty of buyer interest as well as some sales. Leon Tovar, who founded his gallery in 1991 in Bogotá before relocating to New York in 2012, placed a small untitled work by the Colombian artist Santiago Cárdenas for $30,150 and a large wooden sculpture from the Peruvian artist Jaime Miranda-Bambarén's Seeds series for $55,000. Examples of the latter were dotted throughout the lobby near the entrance of the fair. Tovar represents both artists.
“I was a little surprised, because the political situations in Latin America are extreme sometimes," Tovar says. "But they’re very positive here, we got some sales in the early hours."
The value of the Colombian peso sank last week after new government figures revealed the country’s economy shrank in the third quarter of the fiscal year, marking Colombia’s first year-on-year economic contraction since 2020 as both high interest rates and inflation continue to curb spending (galleries at Artbo tend to sell works priced in US dollars). Last month, candidates backed by President Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftwing president, were defeated by opposition candidates in regional elections that were widely viewed as a referendum on the president’s first year in office. For decades, Colombia was caught in violence between powerful drug cartels, right-wing paramilitary groups and left-wing guerrilla movements.
