Frida Kahlo painting sells for $54.7 million; becomes the most expensive work by a woman

New York.- The surrealist self-portrait "El Sueño" by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, became this Thursday the most expensive work by a woman when it was auctioned for 54.7 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York.

Kahlo thus surpasses the American Georgia O'Keeffe, whose work 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1' held the record for the most expensive painting by a woman, sold in 2014 for 44.4 million dollars.

The auction took place in the brutalist building The Breuer, in the Big Apple, where Sotheby's has recently been located, and the buyer was a client who bid through Anna Di Stasi, head of the Latin American Art department of the auction house. The painting, which was estimated to fetch a price between $40 and $60 million, was already sold at Sotheby's in 1980, but for a significantly lower price: $51,000.

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The third most expensive work made by a woman is also by Kahlo. It is her painting 'Diego and I', which sold for $34.9 million in 2021. She is followed by 'Untitled', by the American Joan Mitchell, also one of the most sought-after women in the art world. Meanwhile, the living woman who has achieved the highest sale price is the South African Marlene Dumas, with 'Miss January', sold for 13.6 million dollars this year.