‘The Cadet and his Sister’, a 1988 work in acrylic on paper, shows a cadet dressed in a military school uniform, preparing to leave for combat, saying goodbye to his sister, who is kneeling and tying up his shoes.


The composition alludes to an important event in Rego’s personal life; the same year her husband, British artist Victor Willing, died of multiple sclerosis. From that same year onwards, she was represented by Marlborough Fine Art in London, and given a major retrospective of her work at the Serpentine Gallery in the UK capital.


The painting auctioned at Sotheby’s last Wednesday, which was the property of a private collector in the US, had been valued at between €846,000 and €1.13 million, but ended up going for €1,614,795.


Another major work by Rego, ‘Looking Out’ (1997), a pastel on paper, was sold for €1,360,941.


The sales were part of the Contemporary Art Auction at Sotheby’s that is taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, and which includes works by Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and David Hockney.


Several records were broken at the event, including by the sale ‘One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate)’, a reproduction by Andy Warhol of a one-dollar bill that is the only painted by hand by the artist. It was auctioned for €29.4 million - the highest ever value for a contemporary artwork at auction in London.