Another recent Botero at Christie's New York. Notes below. Sony CyberShot, cha-cha, PS.    Fernando Botero (Colombian b. 1932) Reclining Venus bronze with dark brown patina 60 x 90½ x 46 in. (152.5 x 230 x 117 cm.) Executed in 1989. Edition of three plus two artist proofs   Price Realized $962,500   Provenance Marlborough Gallery, New York. William I. Koch collection, Palm Beach. Christie's, Paris, 10 June 2004 Acquired from the above by the present owner. "These are idealizations of a figure," Botero has explained of the voluptuous female bodies that have acquired near-eponymous status in his sculpture of the past thirty years. What I am concerned with is form--creating smooth, rounded surfaces that emphasize the sensuality of my work. . . Sculpture is like a caress. You touch the form, you can give the forms the softness, the sensuality you want. It's magnificent.(1) Botero's female nudes embody the lush sensuality of the eternal feminine, exalting life through their exuberant physicality and prodigiously rounded proportions. "Botero's aim is nothing short of perfect roundness," Clare Henry has remarked, "a form that hints at the ideal--a pure sphere that refines mortal imperfections into immortal spiritual glory."(2)

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