Che Guevara images withdrawn from auction for lack of buyer

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Five photo negatives of the Cuban revolutionary figure Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara that went on sale at the Mexican auction house Louis C. Morton over the weekend were withdrawn from the auction after failing to attract a buyer, Milenio newspaper reports.

Mexican students might love the Argentine now credited as one of the most important figures in the Cuban Revolution, alongside Fidel Castro, but it doesn’t appear that art and antique buyers feel the same way.

One of the negatives up for auction was an image of Guevara addressing the First Latin American Congress of Youth in 1960.

The bidding for the negatives started at 80,000 pesos (around $6,075) but were withdrawn due to the lack of interest, reports the newspaper.

As we reported in January, when the first part of Steven Soderbergh’s film ‘Che, the Argentine’ premiered here, Guevara is popular among the sprawling student population in Mexico City, where he and Castro, then an exiled lawyer, planned the Cuban Revolution over dinner and cigars on July 3, 1955.

The myth and heroic image of Che have replaced a real understanding of the complex man that he was. His face is often seen emblazoned on flags and T-shirts at student protests and commonly evoked as a universal symbol of social struggle.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City