A painting dated back to the 1940s by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7 million at a New York art auction, shattering female artist auction records.
The self-portrait titled El sueño (la cama), meaning The dream (The bed) - revolves around the depiction of Kahlo sleeping in a canopy bed beneath a skeleton intertwined with dynamites,
The artist’s work demonstrates her tumultuous life when her former lover was assassinated after her divorce and remarriage.
The auction is highly significant for female artists, ushering in a new for women in art where their artwork will be valued.
The sale broke the record for previous Kahlo painting which fetched $34.9 million in 2021.
The highest auction price till now for a female artist was set at $44 million for Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed / White Flower No.1 in 2014.
According to Sotheby’s auction house, Kahlo’s painting is considered as the most “psychologically charged” self-portrait.
Initially in 1980, the price of the painting was set at $51,000.
"This record-breaking result shows just how far we have come, not only in our appreciation of Frida Kahlo's genius, but in the recognition of women artists at the very highest level of the market," the auction house's head of Latin American art, Anna Di Stasi said.
Kahlo, who died in 1954, is widely praised as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century.