A self-portrait by legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has shattered auction records, selling for $54.66 million at Sotheby's in New York on Thursday. The sale establishes a new benchmark as the most expensive painting by a woman artist ever sold at auction, surpassing the previous record held by Georgia O'Keeffe.
The artwork, titled "El sueño (La cama)" or "The Dream (The Bed)" in English, was created by Kahlo in 1940 during what Sotheby's describes as "a pivotal decade in her career, marked by her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera." The painting had been estimated to sell for between $40 million and $60 million, and the identity of the buyer has not been disclosed.
This record-breaking sale surpasses the previous milestone set by American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, whose 1932 painting "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1" sold for $44.4 million in 2014. Sotheby's confirmed on social media that Kahlo's work is now "the most valuable work by a woman artist ever sold at auction."
The painting presents a deeply personal and symbolic image, depicting the artist sleeping in a bed that appears to float among clouds in the sky. Above her lies a skeleton with legs wrapped in sticks of dynamite, creating a haunting and surreal composition that reflects Kahlo's unique artistic vision.
Anna Di Stasi, head of Latin American art at Sotheby's, described the painting as "very personal" to AFP, explaining that in this work, Kahlo "merges folkloric motifs from Mexican culture with European surrealism." Di Stasi noted that while the Mexican artist, who died in 1954 at age 47, "did not completely agree" with her work being associated with the surrealist movement, "given this magnificent iconography, it seems entirely appropriate to include it" in that artistic category.
The record-setting Kahlo sale came just two nights after Sotheby's New York achieved another historic milestone with a painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer," painted between 1914 and 1916, fetched $236.4 million, making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The portrait depicts the daughter of Klimt's main patron dressed in a white imperial Chinese dress, standing before a blue tapestry featuring Asian-inspired motifs.
Despite these remarkable sales, the title of most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains with "Salvator Mundi," attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was purchased for $450 million in 2017. These recent auction results demonstrate the continued strength and evolution of the high-end art market, particularly highlighting the growing recognition and valuation of works by female artists.
