Manuel Ortiz de Zárate (1886-1946)

In bringing a bid of €90,000 to the table alongside a tobacco pot, bottle and pipe, this oil on canvas of 1916 by Manuel Ortiz de Zárate, a Chilean painter born in Italy (1886-1946), set a world record (source: Artnet). After studying at the Fine Arts...

The Cuban artist and political activist made the publication’s list of 100 Most Influential People in 2021. He is described by fellow artist-activist Ai Weiwei ‘as a symbol of and a leader’ within Cuba’s anti-government San Isidro movement.

A group of 17th and 18th-century Latin American paintings collected by Enrique Freymann – the Mexican intellectual who directed publishing house Éditions Hermann – made their way onto the French market in Neuilly. Among them, Ortiz’s Portrait of sister Juana flew particularly high, going for a winning bid of €375,000.

A new €2M maternity and pediatric hospital in Tambacounda, Senegal, is opening after the foundation’s director confronted himself with the privilege of the art world. The building is influenced by “’Albersian’ thinking”, with white wooden doors based on an Anni Albers’ Bauhaus design. (The Art Newspaper)

35 artists, writers and activists signed the letter, addressed to the Cuban President, including John Akomfrah and Carrie Mae Weems. The artist has been in police custody at a Havana hospital for over three weeks after being forcibly hospitalized during a hunger strike protesting artistic repression. (Hyperallergic)

Domingo Ortiz proudly portrayed Mexican traditions and François Lemoyne was preempted for Versailles.

Tania Bruguera had been pressed to leave the island by the repressive Cuban government. She will now take a job as a senior lecturer at Harvard University in exchange for the release of political prisoners, including artists Hamlet Lavastida and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, both imprisoned for dissent.  (HA)

Rapper Maykel Castillo (a.k.a. “Osorbo”) and dissident visual artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara received 9 years “for attacks and defamation against the country’s institutions” and 5 years “for insulting national symbols” respectively, AP reports. Human rights groups have condemned the sentences.

In a sale, in Monterey, this past weekend, a 1955 Ferrari 410 Spider by Scaglietti fetched a stunning $22,005,000, which includes a buyer’s premium. The “largely original” car has a significant provenance, having been driven by Juan Manuel Fangio, Carroll Shelby and Phil Hill, among other legendary drivers. (Hemmings)

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez will apparently stand trial next week. A member of the anti-censorship San Isidro Movement, Otero Alcántara was arrested last July amid anti-government demonstrations. He could face 7 years in prison. Castillo Pérez could face 10 years. (ARTnews)