Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Sets Auction Record
A self-portrait by Frida Kahlo sold for $54.66 million at Sotheby's New York, setting a new record for a woman artist. The landmark sale reflects ongoing interest in Latin American art and the enduring market for iconic works by women.
- The record-breaking painting, titled "El sueño (La cama)" ("The Dream (The Bed)"), was created in 1940 and portrays Kahlo asleep under a canopy where a skeleton lies covered in dynamite, a motif reflecting her chronic pain and thoughts on mortality stemming from a severe bus accident in her youth. - This sale surpassed the previous auction record for a female artist, held for over a decade by Georgia O'Keeffe's "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1," which sold for $44.4 million in 2014. - The artwork also shattered the record for the most valuable piece of Latin American art sold at auction, a title previously held by another Kahlo self-portrait, "Diego y yo," which sold for $34.9 million in 2021. - Before this record-setting sale, "El sueño (La cama)" had not been displayed in public for almost 30 years. - The painting's last appearance at auction was in 1980, when it was sold for just $51,000, highlighting a more than 1,000-fold increase in its value over 45 years. - The buyer of the previous record-holder for a Latin American artwork, "Diego y yo," was Eduardo Costantini, the founder of the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires. - That 1949 self-portrait, "Diego y yo," depicts a tearful Kahlo with a portrait of her husband, Diego Rivera, on her forehead, symbolizing his affair with the actress María Félix. - Many of Frida Kahlo's artworks are legally classified as "Artistic Monuments" in Mexico, which prohibits their sale to buyers outside the country, making international auctions of her major works a rare event.
