A large painting by Frida Kahlo has been auctioned for more than $50 million.
Source: imago images
A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was auctioned in New York for around 54.7 million dollars (around 47.4 million euros) – making it the most expensive work by a woman ever sold at auction.
Auction house Sotheby’s announced that two bidders were holding a five-minute competition for the picture “El sueño (La cama)” (The Dream/The Room), painted in 1940. It was not initially announced who ultimately won the contract.
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“Spooky meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death”
The painting shows the artist sleeping in bed, wrapped in a golden blanket from which leaf tendrils appear to be growing. Above the bed, seemingly floating on the bedpost, lay a skeleton with its legs wrapped in dynamite. The painting is “a ghostly meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death,” Sotheby’s catalog notes say.
The painting by Frida Kahlo is a “very personal” image in which “she combines folklore motifs from Mexican culture with European surrealism,” Anna Di Stasi of the Latin American art department at Sotheby’s told AFP.
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Kahlo, who died in 1954 at the age of 47, “didn’t fully agree” with her work being associated with a surrealist style, the expert added. But “given this great iconography,” it seemed “very reasonable to include them in the movement.”
A historical milestone for women in the arts
The most expensive work of female art ever sold at auction was the painting “Jimson Weed / White Flower No.1” by US artist Georgia O’Keeffe, which sold for $44 million in 2014.
The previous record for Kahlo’s work was 34.9 million and was reached in 2021. “El sueño (La cama)” was last auctioned in 1980 – for 51,000 dollars, about a thousandth of the current price.
These record results show how far we have come, not only in our recognition of Frida Kahlo’s genius, but also in the recognition of female artists at the highest levels of the market.
Anna Di Stasi from Sotheby’s
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Record price for a Klimt painting
At the traditional autumn auction at a major auction house in New York, a record was set at the beginning of the week: a painting by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was auctioned for 236.4 million dollars – making it the second most expensive work in the history of art ever sold at auction.
As of 2017, the most expensive work of art ever auctioned was the painting “Salvator Mundi,” by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), which was auctioned in New York for $450.3 million.
Source: dpa, AFP, AP
