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4h ago

Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Heads to Sotheby’s With $40–$60 Million Estimate for Nov. 8 Sale

Offered without a guarantee, the work carries realistic record-breaking potential.

A painting by Frida Kahlo called El sueño (La cama) is displayed at Sotheby's auction rooms, the painting estimated at 40-60 million US dollars is part of a collection of surrealist masterpieces unveiled in London ahead of their sale in New York, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A painting by Frida Kahlo called El sueño (La cama) is displayed at Sotheby's auction rooms, the painting estimated at 40-60 million US dollars is part of a collection of surrealist masterpieces unveiled in London ahead of their sale in New York, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A painting by Dorothea Tanning called Interior with Sudden Joy is displayed at Sotheby's auction rooms, the painting estimated at 2-3 million US dollars is part of a collection of surrealist masterpieces unveiled in London ahead of their sale in New York, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A painting by Salvador Dali called Symbiose de la tete aux coquillages is displayed at Sotheby's auction rooms, the painting estimated at 2-3 million US dollars is part of a collection of surrealist masterpieces unveiled in London ahead of their sale in New York, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Overview

  • Sotheby’s will auction Frida Kahlo’s 1940 self-portrait El sueño (La cama) in New York on November 8 with a $40 million to $60 million estimate.
  • If bidding reaches the estimate, the result could surpass Kahlo’s auction high of $34.9 million and may exceed the $44.4 million record for a work by a female artist.
  • The painting shows Kahlo in a floating four-poster bed with a dynamite-wired skeleton atop the canopy, and it was last publicly exhibited in the late 1990s.
  • The work anchors a sale of more than 100 Surrealist pieces and is being shown in London before a tour to Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Paris.
  • Sotheby’s has not identified the consignor; The Art Newspaper links the collection to Nesuhi and Selma Ertegun, and the lot currently carries no guarantee.