Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Sets New Record With $54.7m Sale
A rare Frida Kahlo self-portrait has sold for $54.7 million (£41.8 million), setting a new global auction record for an artwork by a woman. The painting, created in the 1940s and titled El sueño (La cama) – The Dream (The Bed) – was sold at Sotheby’s after an intense battle between two private collectors.
The sale price is more than 1,000 times what the piece fetched when it first appeared at auction in 1980, when it sold for $51,000. It also eclipses the previous record for a female artist’s work, set in 2014 by Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed / White Flower No. 1, which sold for $44m. Kahlo’s own auction record was previously $34.9m, achieved in 2021.
The self-portrait shows the celebrated Mexican artist lying in a canopy bed, watched over by a skeleton wrapped in sticks of dynamite — a vivid glimpse into her emotional world. Sotheby’s described the work as “psychologically charged,” created during one of the most turbulent periods of Kahlo’s life, marked by personal upheaval, political violence and the complexities of her marriage to fellow painter Diego Rivera.
Kahlo, who died in 1954, is renowned for her raw, introspective works that often explored her lifelong physical pain and disability stemming from childhood polio and a devastating bus accident.
Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby’s head of Latin American art, said the record-breaking price reflects a shifting art market. “This result shows how far we’ve come, not only in recognising Kahlo’s extraordinary talent, but in elevating the work of women artists at the highest level.”
Because Mexico declared Kahlo’s paintings national artistic monuments in the 1980s, few of her works reach the public market, making this sale particularly significant.
Kahlo’s life and legacy were reintroduced to global audiences through the 2002 biographical film Frida, starring Salma Hayek, which chronicled her passionate relationships, creative brilliance and enduring influence.
