Botero sold first work for two packs of cigarettes: now up for auction in Bogotá
'La Plegaria' (1949), the watercolour Fernando Botero once traded for two packs of cigarettes at the start of his career, is to be auctioned in Bogotá with over 120 Latin American works.
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.
The painting depicts an elderly peasant praying, hands clasped to his mouth and eyes closed. Behind him, a woman shelters a child while casting towards the sky a gaze filled with fear and terror.
Botero painted the work just a year after the assassination of Colombian Liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a murder that unleashed a wave of political violence in Colombia. At the time, the artist was still a teenager of about 17 and a long way from the international recognition he would achieve decades later with his monumental figures and exaggerated volumes.
The piece was then exchanged with Efrén Ossa, regarded as a pioneer of insurance law in Colombia. The anecdote contrasts sharply with the prices reached by Botero's work on the international art market, where his paintings and sculptures have sold for millions of dollars.
The auction will also include the oil on canvas 'Niña con flores' (1960), from a transitional period towards the style that would go on to define the Colombian artist.
In addition, works will be offered by other leading names in Latin American art such as Alejandro Obregón, Débora Arango, Beatriz González, Luis Caballero, Ana Mercedes Hoyos and Óscar Muñoz.
The Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, who died in 2023 at the age of 91, was one of the most influential and recognisable Latin American artists of the past century.
