A haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Nov. 20 for $54.7 million and became the top-selling work by any female artist at an auction.

The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed -- titled "El sueño (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 for $44.4 million in 2014.

The sale at Sotheby's in New York also topped Kahlo's own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist. The 1949 painting "Diego and I," depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, went for $34.9 million in 2021. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.

The self-portrait is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico,

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