Fri Nov 21 01:10:28 UTC 2025: ## FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Shatters Auction Record, Fetching $54.7 Million
NEW YORK, November 21, 2025 – A 1940 self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, “El sueño (La cama)” or “The Dream (The Bed),” sold for a staggering $54.7 million at a New York art auction on Thursday, November 20th, becoming the most expensive work ever sold by a female artist.
The painting, depicting Kahlo asleep in a floating bed with a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite overhead, 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 artwork, which had been in a private collection and last publicly displayed in the late 1990s, garnered significant attention due to its historical and cultural significance. Kahlo, known for her unflinching self-portraits documenting her life and experiences, resisted being labeled a surrealist, proclaiming she painted her own reality rather than dreams.
Sotheby’s described the painting as “a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death,” reflecting Kahlo’s lifelong struggle with chronic pain and mortality following a devastating bus accident at age 18.
The sale has sparked debate amongst art historians, with some raising concerns that the painting might disappear from public view despite requests for inclusion in upcoming exhibitions in New York, London, and Brussels. Nevertheless, the sale highlights the enduring legacy and increasing market value of Kahlo’s powerful and deeply personal artwork. The painting was the centerpiece of an auction featuring over 100 surrealist works by artists such as Salvador Dalí and Rene Magritte.
First Piper 