New York, May 29 (IANS/EFE) The auction houses of Sotheby's and Christie's in New York have amassed a total of $36.5 million from the sale of Latin American art in separate bidding, a slightly lower sum than they brought in last year.

The most recent auction was the one at Christie's, which went on for two days and concluded Friday after selling $22.57 million in Latin American works of art, and in which 75 percent of the lots on offer were sold.

As many as 14 world records were shattered in the sale of works by Latin American artists, including Mexico's Miguel Covarrubias (1904-57), whose "Ofrecimiento de Frutas al Templo" (Offering of Fruit at the Temple), painted in 1932, was knocked down for $850,000, which added to the corresponding commissions had a total price of $1,022,500.

That sale price was between three and four times higher than experts at Christie's had estimated and is the most ever paid at auction for a work by Covarrubias.

That bidding took place after Sotheby's also put on a two-day sale of Latin American art this week, at which works totaling $13.97 million were sold.

At Sotheby's it was the monumentally chubby figures of Colombia's Fernando Botero that reigned, with a number of items going to the highest bidder for over $1 million.

The canvas "Una Familia" (A Family), for example, sold for $1.39 million, the highest price paid in the bidding at Sotheby's and further proof of art lovers' fascination for the Colombian's style.

No less than $1.17 million were paid for his monumental bronze sculpture "Hombre a Caballo" (Man on a Horse), 2 1/2 meters tall, while the voluptuous canvas "Desnudo" (Nude), in which a woman appears sitting on a bed looking very relaxed, went for $632,500.

With these two auctions, Christie's and Sotheby's almost equalled the results of last spring, when their establishments in Manhattan together brought in $37.29 million, an amount that almost duplicated the results of the same season in 2009.