The Star, a Guatemalan weaving after Alexander Calder, $30,000 (£23,700) at Roland Auctions.
However, most that come to auction were made by weavers in Guatemala and Nicaragua a decade later. These works (the Calder Foundation considers them unauthorised) were part of a fundraising initiative to help victims of the earthquake that had hit Nicaragua and Guatemala in December 1972.
Local workers, using traditional techniques and jute rather than wool, were paid four times their usual rate to complete the project. There are 14 different designs with each made in an edition of 100.
The example offered for sale at Roland Auctions (28/20/12.5% buyer’s premiums) in Glen Cove, New York, on February 20 was known as The Star, numbered 96/100 and dated 1975. Inscribed Hecho En Guatemala (Made in Guatemala), it measures 4ft 8in x 7ft (1.42 x 2.13m). It hammered for $30,000 (£23,700) against an estimate of $10,000-20,000, selling to a bidder using LiveAuctioneers.
The February 28 Design auction at Los Angeles Modern Auctions (28/23% buyer’s premium) in Van Nuys, California, included two slightly smaller examples, both woven in Nicaragua in 1974-75 with labels for CAC Publications.
A Floating Circles tapestry (number 38 from the edition of 100) hammered at $35,000 (£29,900) with the Moon design (73 from the edition of 100) bringing $22,000 (£18.800).
Complete set
In November 2023, the Paris auction house Piasa offered a complete set of all of the 14 Calder weavings that had been owned by Kitty Meyer, the New York socialite who had first approached Calder with the earthquake fundraising idea.
All numbered 53/100, they brought hammer prices between €30,000-60,000 with The Star selling for €46,000 (£40,020), Moon at €32,000 (£27,840) and Floating Circle at €50,000 (£43,500).
