Rufino Tamayo's "La Familia" reached US$3 million in Sotheby's Latin American spring art auction.
"His work with sand, earth and pigments is extraordinarily evident in this painting", Axel Stein, Sotheby's head of Latin American art, said last Friday.
The presale estimate of the 1987 painting was between US$1.2 million and US$1.6 million.
Also a painting of a woman with flowers by Mexican artist Alfredo Ramírez was auctioned for US$610,000, while "El Balcón" (The Balcony) by Diego Rivera fetched US$346,000.
The auction also included works of other Latin American artists like Wilfredo Lam, Fernando Botero and Claudio Bravo.