Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait, sold for US$54.7m, breaks auction record for female artists

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 US$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, where her body of work has been declared an artistic monument. Her works in both public and private collections within the country cannot be sold abroad or destroyed.

The painting comes from a private collection, whose owner has not been disclosed, and is legally eligible for international sale. Some art historians have scrutinized the sale for cultural reasons, while others have raised concern that the painting — last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s — could again disappear from public view after the auction. It has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in cities including New York, London and Brussels.

The buyer’s identity was not disclosed.