The dream (the bed) by Frida Kahlo was sold this Thursday for $54.66 billion, the highest price achieved for a work by an artist at auction. The self-portrait of the Mexican woman was auctioned in New York by Sotheby’s, marking a historic record. Until now that position was occupied by the American Georgia O’Keeffe, whose painting Jimson Weed/White Flower n. 1 It sold in 2014 for $44.4 million.
The painting also became the highest-valued piece in Kahlo’s catalog at public auction, though some experts say some private sales may have surpassed that figure. Previously, the record for a work by the artist was held Me and Diegoin which Kahlo captures an interpretation of her stormy relationship with the famous Mexican muralist and for which she was paid $34.9 million in 2021.
The dream (the bed) It is considered one of the clearest representations of Surrealist aesthetics in Kahlo’s work, although the artist herself explained at the time that she did not identify with the movement: “I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my reality.” The painting was created in 1940, in one of the most complex moments for Kahlo, when she was going through a divorce (and continuous attempts at reconciliation) with Diego Rivera, as well as facing health problems and a deep depression. The self-portrait shows the artist lying on her bed – the place that became both a resting place and a prison – covered by a yellow quilt and creepers. Above, a skeleton appears in the same position, but surrounded by dynamite and holding a bouquet of flowers. “The bed frame becomes both physical support and metaphysical scaffolding, a stage where death literally floats above life. The dream (The bed) It offers, without a doubt, a ghostly meditation on the border between sleep and death,” explains Sotheby’s.
Death was a constant element in Kahlo’s work, marked by the accident she suffered, her multiple illnesses and even suicide attempts. However, his vision tended more toward reflection than fear. Furthermore The dream (The bed)this theme appears in works such as The wounded table AND Girl with death mask. At the back of the bedroom where she slept she also had a papier-mâché skeleton as a decorative element, which is currently located in the Frida Kahlo Museum, the house where she lived and died, in Coyoacán, Mexico City.
The auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer, but it was specified that the work undertakes to be exhibited during 2026, 2027 and 2028 in various retrospectives dedicated to the Mexican artist, including those at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the British National Museum of Modern Art and at the Riehen Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in Basel. Pieces by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Óscar Domínguez and Remedios Varo also stood out in Thursday’s sale.
