Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait sells for nearly $55M, breaking auction record for female artist

A haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold on Thursday for $54.7 million and became the top-selling work by any female artist at an auction, Euronews writes.

The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed – titled “El sueño (La cama)” or in English, “The Dream (The Bed)” – surpassed the record held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1″, which sold for $44.4 million in 2014.

The sale at Sotheby’s in New York also topped Kahlo’s own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist. The 1949 painting “Diego and I”, depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, went for $34.9 million in 2021. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.

The painting comes from a private collection, whose owner has not been disclosed, and is legally eligible for international sale.