Frida Kahlo self-portrait set to challenge historic auction records

A rare 1940 self-portrait by Frida Kahlo is expected to draw global attention as it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York this Thursday. Titled El sueño (La cama) — translated as The Dream (The Bed) — the work carries an estimate of $40 million to $60 million, placing it in contention to surpass the current auction record for a woman artist. That benchmark, $44.4 million, was set in 2014 for Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1.

Rare Frida Kahlo painting expected to ignite major bidding war

For Kahlo, whose works are fiercely coveted and seldom seen on the market, this sale marks a significant moment. The artist’s highest auction price to date stands at $34.9 million for Diego and I in 2021, though some of her pieces are believed to have fetched higher amounts in private transactions.

In El sueño (La cama), Kahlo depicts herself asleep in a wooden colonial-style bed, her body cocooned in a golden embroidered blanket. Vines and leaves curl across the textile, lending the painting a sense of organic life that contrasts sharply with the stark skeleton suspended above her. Resting atop the bedposts, the skeletal figure has long been interpreted as a symbol of the artist’s fear of dying in her sleep — a haunting anxiety shaped by years of chronic pain.

Kahlo’s life was deeply marked by trauma following a devastating bus accident at age 18, after which she spent months bedridden and later endured numerous surgeries. Much of her work emerged from these periods of intense physical suffering, and her self-portraits remain some of the most honest, arresting images of the 20th century.

As collectors prepare for Thursday’s auction, El sueño (La cama) stands not only as a testament to Kahlo’s uncompromising gaze but also as a rare opportunity to own one of her most intimate works.

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