Olga de Amaral’s “Moon Basket 15” Headlines Latin American Offerings at Larsen’s Oct. 17 Fall Art Auction

A major work by Colombian artist Olga de Amaral will head to the auction block at the Larsen Fall Art Auction in Scottsdale Oct. 17, giving collectors a chance to bid on a $400,000-$600,000 work by an artist whose profile and prices have climbed dramatically over the past two years.

Olga de Amaral, “Moon Basket 15,” 1988

Larsen Gallery will offer de Amaral’s 1988 “Moon Basket 15” during its Fall Art Auction, where it will headline a notable group of Latin American works by Jesús Rafael Soto, Oswaldo Vigas and Roberto Matta.

Measuring 64 inches by 32 inches, “Moon Basket 15” combines acrylic, gold leaf and gesso on silk and linen. A private Paradise Valley, Arizona, collection acquired the work from Bentley Tomlinson Gallery in Scottsdale in 1992 and has held it ever since.

The sale comes at a remarkable point in de Amaral’s career. Her auction record was $698,500 in May 2024, and then rose to $1.17 million by May 2025. By November 2025, “Pueblo H” had sold for $3.12 million at Christie’s in New York, setting another auction record for the artist.

Major art institutions have also turned considerable attention toward her work. Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presented de Amaral’s first major European retrospective from October 2024 through March 2025, bringing together about 80 works spanning more than six decades. The exhibition later traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Her work also belongs to collections including Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Born in Bogotá in 1932, de Amaral has spent decades working outside the traditional boundaries of textile art. She incorporates materials like linen, cotton, gesso, gold leaf and palladium into her work, intermingling weaving, painting and sculpture.

“There’s an enormous amount of attention on Olga de Amaral right now, and for good reason,” said Larsen Gallery’s Mary Holford. “She’s spent decades creating work that is unmistakably her own, and to have ‘Moon Basket 15’ in this auction alongside Soto, Vigas and Matta gives us an incredible group of Latin American artists represented in the same sale.”

Among those works is Jesús Rafael Soto’s “Variantes Vertical,” created in 1998 and estimated at $100,000-$200,000. Made from painted wood with metal mounting hardware, the three-dimensional work measures 40.5 inches by 40.25 inches by 6.75 inches deep. The Venezuelan artist moved to Paris in 1950, where he became part of the city’s avant-garde art scene and explored movement, space and perception in his work.

Jesús Rafael Soto, “Variantes Vertical,” 1998

Larsen will also offer two works by Venezuelan artist Oswaldo Vigas. His 1976 oil on canvas “Grupo Azul” measures 56.5 inches by 45 inches and carries an estimate of $130,000-$180,000. His 1985 oil on canvas “Duende Azul” measures 72.5 inches by 51 inches. Vigas’s career spanned more than six decades, with pre-Columbian imagery and European modernism influencing his paintings, prints and ceramics.

Roberto Matta, Untitled, 1995

Chilean artist Roberto Matta also joins the lineup with an untitled 1995 oil on canvas measuring 53.5 inches by 79 inches that could fetch $70,000-$100,000. Matta worked in Europe and the United States, with Surrealism and his interest in the subconscious influencing his often-dreamlike work.

Together, the de Amaral, Soto, Vigas and Matta works give Latin American art a significant presence in the 21st installment of the biannual Larsen Art Auction. The Oct. 17 sale includes 440 lots spanning contemporary, modern, Southwestern, Native American and Latin American art, with paintings, limited-edition prints and sculptures ranging in value from several hundred dollars well into six figures.

The auction comes as Larsen continues to attract collectors and consignors across Arizona and well beyond. The 35-year-old Larsen Gallery has generated more than $25 million in lifetime auction sales, with its April 2026 sale drawing buyers from more than 40 states and 20 countries.

Award-winning auctioneer Jason Brooks keeps the bidding lively throughout the day with quick humor and plenty of crowd interaction.

Collectors can now view available lots, and the Larsen Fall Art Auction begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, with live, telephone, absentee and online bidding available throughout the event.

For more about the Larsen Art Auction, visit LarsenArtAuction.com or follow developments on Facebook, X or Instagram.