Frida Kahlo’s “The Dream” Set to Break Records at Auction

Frida Kahlo’s painting “El sueño (La cama)” is poised to make history at auction, with estimates suggesting it could fetch between $40 million and $60 million. Scheduled to be sold by Sotheby’s on November 20, 2023, in New York, this significant work would become the most expensive piece by a female or Latin American artist, should it reach the higher end of the estimate.

The painting has already garnered attention through a global exhibition, having been displayed in London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Paris. Mexican art historian Helena Chávez Mac Gregor, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), remarked on the speculation surrounding the auction, stating, “This is a moment of a lot of speculation.”

Kahlo’s work is protected in Mexico under a declaration of artistic monument, preventing the sale or destruction of her pieces within the country. However, “El sueño (La cama)” is eligible for international sale, as it belongs to a private collection abroad. The identity of the owner remains undisclosed.

Art historian and curator Cuauhtémoc Medina highlighted the inconsistencies within the system for declaring Mexican modern artistic heritage, calling it “very anomalous.”

Created in 1940 after Kahlo’s trip to Paris, where she engaged with surrealist artists, “El sueño (La cama)” features a striking image of a skull on the bed’s canopy. Contrary to common interpretations, this figure is not a Day of the Dead skeleton but a Judas, a traditional cardboard effigy used in Easter celebrations to symbolize the triumph of good over evil. The painting incorporates elements such as firecrackers and flowers, drawing inspiration from a skeleton Kahlo kept above her own bed.

Chávez Mac Gregor noted that Kahlo lived a complex life filled with health challenges, often spending time in bed as she grappled with her ailments. While “El sueño (La cama)” will be auctioned alongside renowned surrealists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, Kahlo herself did not identify with the surrealist movement. Despite having met its founder, André Breton, and exhibiting in Paris in 1939, she regarded surrealism as a bourgeois concept.

Nonetheless, her work exhibits surrealist elements through dreamlike imagery and themes of revolutionary and sexual freedom, vividly represented in the painting with Kahlo suspended in a bed among vines.

“The Dream (The Bed)” was last showcased in the 1990s, and its potential sale raises concerns about its availability to the public post-auction. Many high-value paintings often disappear from view, acquired by private collectors. One exception is Kahlo’s “Diego y yo” (“Diego and I”), which sold for a record $34.9 million in 2021 and remains on display at the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (Malba).

Medina expressed concern that the soaring prices in the art market reduce works to mere commodities. He lamented that when art is treated as an investment, it often ends up stored in tax-free zones, potentially hidden away for decades.

Currently, the highest auction price for a painting by a female artist is held by Georgia O’Keeffe, whose “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” sold for $44.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2014. Despite these milestones, the auction market continues to reflect a significant disparity, as no female artist has yet surpassed the highest sale price achieved by a male artist. This benchmark remains the $450.3 million sale of “Salvator Mundi,” attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, in 2017.

As the auction date approaches, the art world watches closely, poised to witness a significant moment in both Kahlo’s legacy and the broader landscape of art valuation.