Just two days after Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for US$236 million – the second-highest price ever achieved at auction – Sotheby’s New York headquarters hosted another historic moment last night (20 November).
Frida Kahlo’s dreamlike painting El sueño (La cama) sold for US$54.7 million with fees, setting a new benchmark for the most expensive artwork by a female artist – a record unbroken for over a decade.
Painted in 1940, during a period of personal and artistic upheaval, the symbol-laden self-portrait set three records at once: the highest price ever achieved for a work by Kahlo, for Latin American art, and for any female artist at auction.
The previous record was set in 2014 by Georgia O’Keeffe, whose floral painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for US$44.4 million, also at Sotheby’s New York. It was acquired by Walmart heiress Alice Walton for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where it remains in the permanent collection.
Frida Kahlo's El sueño (La cama) hammered for US$47 million
Lot 13 | Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954) | El sueño (La cama), oil on canvas
Executed in 1940
74 x 98 cm
Provenance (Supplemented by The Value):
- Galería Misrachi, Mexico City
- Private Collection, Mexico City (acquired from the above)
- Sotheby’s New York, 9 May 1980, lot 39 (consigned by the above) (Sold: US$51,000)
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: US$40,000,000 - 60,000,000
Hammer Price: US$47,000,000
Sold: US$54,660,000
Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait led the Exquisite Corpus Evening Auction, a 24-lot sale of Surrealist works from a single, anonymous private collection. Offered with an irrevocable bid, the lot was backed by a third-party guarantor to ensure its sale.
Bidding opened at US$22 million, and quickly attracted interest from two phone bidders, represented by Julian Dawes, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide, and Anna Di Stasi, Head of Latin American Art.
The pace advanced in US$2 million increments until reaching US$40 million, then slowed to US$1 million steps. After Di Stasi bid US$47 million, Dawes withdrew. The hammer fell after five minutes, with Di Stasi securing the work for her client, paddle 99, at a final price of US$54.7 million with fees.
The work last appeared at Sotheby’s in 1980, where it sold for just US$51,000, marking a more than 1,000-fold increase over 45 years.
Anna Di Stasi (holding the phone) winning for her client with paddle 99
Until last night, Frida Kahlo’s personal record – as well as the highest price ever achieved for Latin American art – belonged to her 1949 self-portrait, Diego y yo, which sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2021 for US$34.9 million, setting two major records at the time.
Top Auction Prices for Female Artists (as of 21 November 2025):
- Frida Kahlo
El sueño (La cama), oil on canvas, 74 × 98 cm
Sold: US$54,660,000, Sotheby's New York, 2025
- Georgia O'Keeffe
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, oil on canvas, 121.9 x 101.6 cm
Sold: US$44,405,000, Sotheby's New York, 2014
- Frida Kahlo
Diego y yo, oil on masonite, 30 x 22.4cm
Sold: US$34,883,000, Sotheby's New York, 2021
- Louise Bourgeois
Spider, bronze, 337.8 x 668 x 632.5 cm
Sold: US$32,804,500, Sotheby's New York, 2023
Georgia O'Keeffe | Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, oil on canvas | 121.9 x 101.6 cm | Sold: US$44,405,000, Sotheby's New York, 2014
Frida Kahlo | Diego y yo, oil on Masonite | 30 x 22.4cm | Sold: US$34,883,000, Sotheby's New York, 2021
Louise Bourgeois | Spider, bronze | 337.8 x 668 x 632.5 cm | Sold: US$32,804,500, Sotheby's New York, 2023
The rarity of Kahlo’s works at auction is largely due to Mexican cultural protection laws. Following her death in 1954, the Mexican government declared all of her artworks “Artistic Monuments” (Monumento Artístico), a designation that prohibits any Kahlo piece located within Mexico – whether publicly or privately owned – from being sold abroad or destroyed.
As a result, her paintings seldom appear on the public market. When they do change hands, it’s often through private transactions, frequently at prices that surpass auction results. In 2021, for instance, Christie’s reportedly brokered a private sale of her self-portrait Me and My Parrot for US$130 million to an Asian collector – more than double her auction record at the time.
That same year, another self-portrait, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser, entered the collection of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas. While the painting was also acquired privately in 2021, the price was not disclosed.
Me and My Parrot reportedly sold for US$130 million to an Asian collector
Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser | The collection of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles
Frida Kahlo’s life was shaped by pain and resilience. After surviving polio as a child, she was nearly killed in a bus accident at 18 – injuries that left her in chronic pain and ended her dream of becoming a doctor.
She began painting during her recovery, though art had already been part of her life. Her father, a respected photographer and amateur painter, often used her as a model and introduced her to Western art history – including the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Albrecht Dürer.
That early exposure to portraiture masters shaped her lifelong focus on self-representation. Of the roughly 150 paintings she created, about one-third are self-portraits – the works for which she is now most celebrated.
Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego
Frida Kahlo's bed and bedroom
Kahlo is often associated with magical realism, and her self-portraits are rich with surreal, symbolic imagery: a deer pierced by arrows, a heart hanging outside her chest, floating babies, disembodied pelvises – all rendered with vivid, deeply personal symbolism.
In the record-setting El sueño (La cama), a bed floats mid-air with Frida lying in it, surrounded by lush vegetation. Above her, a skeleton hovers – strapped with dynamite and holding a bouquet of flowers.
The scene feels dreamlike, but every detail is rooted in reality. The bed was her own. The skeleton draws from papier-mâché figures used during Día de los Muertos, a familiar emblem of death in Mexican culture.
By 1940, when the work was painted, Kahlo’s health was deteriorating, and she had just remarried Diego Rivera after a painful separation. Here, the artist channels both physical suffering and emotional unrest into a vivid confrontation with mortality.
Details of the painting are grounded in reality
Details of the painting are grounded in reality
The buyer of El sueño (La cama) remains anonymous. What is certain, however, is that the public will have opportunities to see the painting in the coming years. It is already confirmed for loan to several major international exhibitions between 2026 and 2028:
- 22 March – 7 September 2026
Frida y Diego: The Last Dream | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- 25 June 2026 – 3 January 2027
Frida: The Making of an Icon | Tate Modern, London
- 31 January – 17 May 2027
Frida Kahlo — The Painter | Fondation Beyeler, Basel
- December 2026 – July 2028
The Autonomous Gaze (Touring Exhibition) | Bundeskunsthalle (Bonn), Kunstmuseum Basel, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (Finland), BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels)
Auction Details:
Auction House: Sotheby's New York
Sale: Exquisite Corpus Evening Auction
Date: 20 November 2025
Number of Lots: 24
Sold: 24
Sale Rate: 100%
Sale Total: US$98,097,200