Overview
- Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait El sueño (La cama) sold in New York for $54.6 million, according to Sotheby's.
- Two bidders fought for roughly five minutes before the hammer fell, and the auction house did not disclose the buyer.
- Depicting Kahlo asleep beneath a skeleton wrapped in dynamite, the painting was described by Sotheby's Anna Di Stasi as a very personal blend of Mexican folk motifs and European surrealism.
- The result surpasses the previous women's auction record set by Georgia O'Keeffe's Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 at $44.4 million in 2014, and exceeds Kahlo's prior high of $34.9 million in 2021.
- The work last sold at auction in 1980 for $51,000, and the new price arrives during a week of blockbuster sales that also saw a Gustav Klimt painting fetch $236.4 million.