Frida Kahlo painting breaks record for most expensive work by any female, at $54.7M
Iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's painting 'El sueño (La cama)' sold for $54.7 million at a Sotheby's auction on Nov. 20, 2025, setting a new record for the artist and making it the most expensive work by a woman artist ever sold at auction. Painted in 1940, during a period of intense personal upheaval and artistic transformation, 'El sueño (La cama)' is, according to Sotheby's, among the most psychologically charged and symbolically rich self-portraits in Kahlo's catalogue of work. The final price is more than 1,000 times what the painting made when it last appeared on the market in 1980, selling then for $51,000.
SOTHEBY'S / REUTERS
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00:00And now, ladies and gentlemen, to sleep perchance to dream, we come to El Sueno La Cama, one of Frida Kahlo's most storied, poignant and psychologically complex self-portraits, appearing on the auction block for the very first time in 45 years.
00:13Please note, this work has been requested for major upcoming exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern in 2026.
00:19It may have to go for some time, but that's a lovely first-class issue here, wonderful painting.
00:24We wish to thank Professor Louis-Martin Lozano for his kind assistance in cataloging this work, this masterpiece by Frida Kahlo.
00:30And I'm going to start the bidding at $22 million here, for the Kahlo at $22 million, for the Frida Kahlo at $26 million, at $26 million, $28 million.
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