Frida Kahlo’s 1940 self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* sold for US$54.7 million in New York, setting a new auction record for any female artist and surpassing Georgia O’Keeffe’s previous record, while prompting cultural debate over its sale and future visibility

New York: A 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Thursday for US$ 54.7 million at a New York art auction and became the top sale price for a work by any female artist.

The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed — titled “El sueno (La cama)” or in English, “The Dream (The Bed)” — surpassed the record held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” which sold at Sotheby’s for US$ 44.4 million in 2014.

The highest price at auction for a Kahlo work was previously USD 34.9 million, paid in 2021 for “Die

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