Sotheby's Presents Frida Kahlo's 'El sueño' And Maurizio Cattelan’s Golden Toilet In Landmark New York Auction

New York: Sotheby's is set to make art history this season with a striking juxtaposition of cultural icons -- Frida Kahlo’s deeply personal painting El sueño (La cama) and Maurizio Cattelan’s gleaming, solid gold toilet America. Both works headline the auction house’s autumn marquee sales at its new Manhattan headquarters.Kahlo's El sueño (La cama), estimated between $40 million and $60 million, could set a new record for a female artist at auction.  Anna Di Stasi, Head of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s, described the work as "an intimate self-portrait not only of the artist but of her day-to-day life and her reflection on the duality of existence -- living, dying, sleeping, and awakening."Di Stasi noted that Kahlo created the piece in 1940, during a turbulent period following her divorce and later remarriage to Diego Rivera. "It was a challenging yet pivotal time for Frida," she said. "The 1940s would ultimately become her most accomplished decade as an artist."Adding to the spectacle, the auction will also feature America, Cattelan’s infamous solid gold toilet, a work that redefines the relationship between art, excess, and value. The 101.2-kilogram sculpture, valued at around $10 million based on gold prices, is described by Sotheby’s as "an incisive commentary on the collision of artistic creation and commodity culture."David Galperin, Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby's New York, called Cattelan "the consummate art world provocateur," recalling his previous headline-making works such as Comedian, the banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $6.2 million, and Him, a sculpture of a kneeling Adolf Hitler that fetched $17.2 million in 2016. Created in 2016, two versions of America exist. One has been owned by a private collector since 2017, while the other gained global notoriety after its installation in a bathroom at the Guggenheim Museum, where over 100,000 visitors queued to use it. That version was later loaned to England’s Blenheim Palace, where it was stolen in a 2019 heist and has never been recovered.Cattelan has said the sculpture satirises the absurdities of luxury and wealth, famously remarking, "Whatever you eat—a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog—the results are the same, toilet-wise."Sotheby's November 18 auction promises to be a defining moment in contemporary art, uniting two vastly different yet equally provocative visions of human experience—Kahlo's emotional introspection and Cattelan’s gleaming satire of modern opulence.