The self-portrait “El sueño (La cama)”, by Frida Kahlo, made history when it sold for US$54.7 million (around R$293 million reais) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
The price made the work the most expensive work ever sold by a female artist, surpassing the record held by Georgia O’Keeffe since 2014, when “Jimson Weed/White Flower No.1” was sold for US$44.4 million (about R$237.9 million).
Valued at between US$40 million and US$60 million, the painting had not been seen by the public for almost three decades and was exhibited before auction in London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Paris and New York.
Continues after advertising
The painting shows Kahlo lying on a bed suspended in front of a blue sky, while green vines outline her body. On top of it rests a skeleton equipped with dynamite and dried flowers, a composition marked by the surrealism and psychological intensity that characterize his work.
The bed is one of the most recurring symbols in Kahlo’s work, who spent long periods immobilized after a bus accident that left permanent consequences.
During her recovery, her family adapted her bed with a mirror and a special easel so that the artist could continue painting while lying down. “I’m not dead and I have a reason to live. That reason is to paint”, she wrote at the time.
The new record also repositions “Diego y yo”, sold in 2021 by the same Sotheby’s, which until then occupied the top spot among the most expensive works made by an artist and was also the most valuable painting in Latin American art.
With this Thursday’s sale, the title returns to a work by Kahlo, now at an even higher level.
“El sueño (La cama)” was part of the “Exquisite Corpus” auction, which brought together more than 80 pieces of surrealism, with works by names such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí.
Continues after advertising
