![\"Self](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/self-portraits-by-artist-frida-kahlo-titled-from-left-self-p-2DRNRDBQIJC2VJ3YMBJAMJCE7E.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrida Kahlo\u2019s El sue\u00f1o (La cama) \u2014 in English, The Dream (The Bed) \u2014 is causing a stir among art historians as its estimated US$40 million to US$60 million (NZ$70.8 million to NZ$106.3 million) price tag would make it the most expensive work by any female or Latin American artist when it goes to auction later this month.<\/p>\n
Sotheby\u2019s auction house will put the painting up for sale on November 20 in New York after exhibiting it in London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Paris.<\/p>\n
“This is a moment of a lot of speculation,” said Mexican art historian Helena Ch\u00e1vez Mac Gregor, a researcher at UNAM\u2019s Institute of Aesthetic Research and author of El list\u00f3n y la bomba. El arte de Frida Kahlo (The Ribbon and the Bomb. The Art of Frida Kahlo).<\/p>\n
In Mexico, Kahlo\u2019s work is protected by a declaration of artistic monument, meaning pieces within the country cannot be sold or destroyed. However, works from private collections abroad \u2013 like the painting in question, whose owner remains unrevealed \u2013 are legally eligible for international sale.<\/p>\n
“The system of declaring Mexican modern artistic heritage is very anomalous,” said Mexican curator Cuauht\u00e9moc Medina, an art historian and specialist in contemporary art.<\/p>\n
Judas in bed<\/p>\n
El sue\u00f1o (La cama) was created in 1940 following Kahlo’s trip to Paris, where she came into contact with the surrealists.<\/p>\n
Contrary to contemporary belief, the skull on the bed\u2019s canopy is not a Day of the Dead skeleton, but a Judas \u2014 a handmade cardboard figure. Traditionally lit with gunpowder during Easter, this effigy symbolises purification and the triumph of good over evil, representing Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.<\/p>\n
In the painting, the skeleton is detailed with firecrackers, flowers on its ribs and a smiling grimace \u2013 a detail inspired by a cardboard skeleton Kahlo actually kept in the canopy of her own bed.<\/p>\n
Kahlo “spent a lot of time in bed waiting for death”, said Ch\u00e1vez Mac Gregor. “She had a very complex life because of all the illnesses and physical challenges with which she lived.”<\/p>\n
Frida and surrealism<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Self portraits by artist Frida Kahlo, titled from left, “Self Portrait with Braids”, 1941, “Self Portrait with Monkeys”, 1943, and “Self Portrait with Small Monkey”, 1945 in 2013. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Although Kahlo\u2019s painting is being auctioned alongside works by surrealists like Salvador Dal\u00ed, Ren\u00e9 Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, she did not consider herself a member of the movement, despite having met its founder, Andr\u00e9 Breton, in Mexico and had an exhibition organised by him in Paris in 1939.<\/p>\n
“Breton was fascinated by Frida\u2019s work, because he saw that surrealist spirit there,” said Ch\u00e1vez Mac Gregor.<\/p>\n
Kahlo, a committed communist, considered surrealism \u2013 a movement proposing a revolution of consciousness \u2013 to be bourgeois. As Ch\u00e1vez Mac Gregor noted, “Frida always had a critical distance from that.”<\/p>\n
Despite this, specialists have found elements of surrealism in Kahlo\u2019s work related to the dreamlike, to an inner world and to a revolutionary and sexual freedom \u2013 a concept visible in a bed suspended in the sky with Kahlo sleeping among a vine.<\/p>\n
‘Crazy-priced purchases’<\/p>\n
![\"Visitors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/visitors-look-at-a-frida-kahlo-painting-titled-diego-y-yo-or-QBGKXSAUO5AIJHFRZB4YNNGGXU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Visitors look at a Frida Kahlo painting titled, “Diego y yo” or Diego and I, on display at Sotheby’s auction house in 2021. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
El sue\u00f1o (La cama) was last exhibited in the 1990s, and after the auction, it could disappear from public view once again, a fate shared by many paintings acquired for large sums at auction.<\/p>\n
There are exceptions, including Diego y yo (Diego and I), which set Kahlo\u2019s record sale price when it sold for US$34.9 million (NZ$61.8 million) in 2021.<\/p>\n
The painting, depicting the artist and her husband muralist Diego Rivera, was acquired by Argentine business owner Eduardo Costantini and then lent to the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (Malba) where it remains on exhibit.<\/p>\n
Medina, the art historian, regretted that the “crazy-priced” purchases have reduced art to a mere economic value.<\/p>\n
He lamented that when funds purchase art as mere investments \u2013 like buying shares in a public company \u2013 the works are often relegated to tax-free zones to avoid costs. Their fate, he said, “may be worse; they may end up in a refrigerator at Frankfurt airport for decades to come”.<\/p>\n
A female artist<\/p>\n
The current sale record for a work by a female artist is held by Georgia O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s Jimson Weed\/White Flower No. 1, which fetched US$44.4 million (NZ$78.6 million) at Sotheby\u2019s in 2014.<\/p>\n
However, the auction market still reflected a profound disparity as no female artist had yet exceeded the maximum sale price of a male artist. The current benchmark is Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was auctioned by Christie\u2019s for US$450.3 million (NZ$797.5) in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frida Kahlo\u2019s El sue\u00f1o (La cama) \u2014 in English, The Dream (The Bed) \u2014 is causing a stir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,2567,499,500,501,156,111,139,64,69],"class_list":["post-129067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}