Frida Kahlo reached a new milestone in the art world on Thursday in New York. Her 1940 self-portrait El sueño (La cama) sold for $54.66 million at Sotheby’s. The price surpassed the previous auction record for a woman artist. Georgia O’Keeffe held that position since 2014 with Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, which sold for $44.4 million.
Sotheby’s announced the result shortly after the auction ended. The buyer chose to remain unnamed. The painting came to the sale with an estimated value of $40 million to $60 million. The auction house highlighted the importance of the decade during which Kahlo created the work. It coincided with her intense relationship with Diego Rivera and a period of developing artistic identity.
The painting shows Kahlo sleeping on a floating bed in the clouds. A skeleton rests above her with legs wrapped in dynamite. Anna Di Stasi, the head of Latin American art at Sotheby’s, said the image blended Mexican folk themes with European surrealist influence. Kahlo often rejected the surrealist label, yet her visual language supports that categorization.
The record came two nights after another major sale at Sotheby’s. Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236.4 million, becoming the second most expensive work ever sold at auction.
