Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Sells for Record $54.7m

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait, 'El sueño (La cama)', has sold for $54.7m at a Sotheby's auction, shattering the record for the highest price paid for a work by a female artist. The painting, created in the 1940s, depicts Kahlo asleep in a canopy bed with a skeleton entwined with dynamite. It was sold for over 1,000 times its original auction price in 1980. The sale broke the previous record for a Kahlo portrait and highlighted the growing recognition of women artists in the art market.

A 1940 self-portrait by Frida Kahlo titled 'El sueño (La cama)' or 'The Dream (The Bed)' sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York for $54.7 million, shattering the record for the highest price paid for a work by a female artist. The painting, which depicts Kahlo asleep in a bed surrounded by symbolic imagery, surpassed the previous record held by Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,' which sold for $44.4 million in 2014. The sale also topped Kahlo's own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist. The painting has been part of a private collection and is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico. Some art historians have raised concerns about the sale due to cultural reasons and the potential for the painting to disappear from public view.

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait, 'El sueño (La cama),' sold for $55 million at a Sotheby's auction, setting a new record for the artist. The painting, created in 1940, depicts Kahlo asleep in a canopy bed with a papier-mâché skeleton overhead. The sale highlights Kahlo's growing stature as a pop-culture icon and the renewed interest in Surrealism, which is celebrating its centennial. The auction was part of Sotheby's 'Exquisite Corpus' sale, which totaled $98 million with fees. The sale also set a record for a Latin American artist and was driven by a combination of factors, including museum exhibitions and increased scholarship on Surrealism's female artists. Kahlo's paintings are rare at auction due to a 1984 Mexican government ban on exporting her works, making this sale significant. The painting's sale price was within the midrange of the original estimate but fell short of the record for a female artist, held by Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1.'

A 1940 self-portrait by Frida Kahlo titled 'El sueño (La cama)' has sold for $54.7m at a Sotheby's auction in New York, setting a new record for the highest price paid for a work by a female artist at auction. The painting depicts Kahlo asleep in bed with a skeleton on the canopy above her. The sale surpasses the previous record held by Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1', which sold for $44.4m in 2014. The buyer remains unidentified. Some art historians have raised concerns about the sale due to cultural reasons and the potential for the painting to disappear from public view again. The painting is part of a private collection and is legally eligible for international sale. It has been requested for upcoming exhibitions in several cities.