Frida Kahlo’s celebrated self portrait “El sueno” (La cama) has fetched $54.66 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, setting a benchmark for the highest price paid for a painting by a woman.
The auction house confirmed the record on Thursday after the artwork drew significant global interest.
The 1940 painting depicts Kahlo asleep in a canopy bed while a papier mache skeleton smiles above her.
It was created during a turbulent period marked by her painful injuries and a strained marriage, reported The New York Times.
Sotheby’s described the work as having been completed during a pivotal decade in her career shaped by her complex relationship with Diego Rivera. The buyer has not been identified.
The sale surpasses the previous record set in 2014 when Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1932 work Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44.4 millions.
Adjusted for inflation, that price stands at roughly $60.5 million today. Kahlo’s painting also set a new benchmark for the most valuable work by a Latin American artist at auction.
The auction underscored the rising stature of Kahlo as a cultural icon and renewed interest in surrealism, which is marking its centennial across the world.
On Tuesday, a portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (£179m) in New York.
The portrait became the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after a six person bidding battle that lasted 20 minutes. The piece was painted between 1914 and 1916.
The portrait’s past is marked by upheaval. Looted by the Nazis and nearly destroyed in a fire during the Second World War, it was recovered in 1948, reported the BBC.
Sotheby’s said it was returned to Lederer’s brother Erich who was a friend and subject of Egon Schiele.
The artwork remained with him for most of his life until he sold it in 1983. The buyer of the latest sale has not been disclosed.
The top position in auction history continues to be held by “Salvator Mundi” attributed to Leonardo da Vinci which sold for $450.3 million in 2017.
Tuesday’s auction also saw a 101 kilogram fully functioning gold toilet by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan draw a single bid of $12.1 million just an hour after the Klimt sale.
Sotheby’s said the buyer was a well known American brand.