Frida Kahlo’s unmistakable visage and bold self-portraits have made her a global icon, yet even the most ardent admirers have rarely glimpsed one of her most enigmatic works—until now. This November, Sotheby’s New York will auction Kahlo’s 1940 masterpiece, El sueño (La cama)—or, in English, The Dream (The Bed)—in a sale that could rewrite the record books for female artists and Latin American art alike.
The painting, estimated to sell for between $40 million and $60 million, is poised to shatter the standing auction record for a work by a woman. According to the Associated Press, that benchmark is currently held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1, which fetched $44.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2014. Kahlo’s own auction record stands at $34.9 million, set in 2021 for her haunting double portrait Diego y yo. Privately, some of her works have reportedly traded hands for even more, but El sueño (La cama)’s public appearance on the block is a rare event in itself.
“It’s not just one of the more important works by Kahlo, but one of a few that exists outside of Mexico and not in a museum collection,” Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s vice chairman and head of Impressionist and Modern Art for the Americas, told the Associated Press. “So as both a work of art and as an opportunity in the market, it could not be more rare and special.”
The painting’s journey to the auction block is set against the backdrop of Sotheby’s grand reopening at its new Madison Avenue headquarters, where more than 80 Surrealist works—spanning giants like Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Dorothea Tanning, and others—will be offered. The entire collection, drawn from an unnamed private collector, is expected to bring in between $70 million and $105 million. The sale, aptly titled “Exquisite Corpus,” nods to the Surrealist tradition of collaborative creation and promises to be a landmark event for collectors and art lovers alike.
But it’s Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama) that has captured the world’s attention. Painted during what many experts consider her artistic peak—the late 1930s to early 1940s—the work is a psychological self-portrait brimming with symbolism, vulnerability, and defiance. Kahlo depicts herself lying in a four-poster bed, which floats amid a pale blue sky. She’s wreathed in vines, a motif that Sotheby’s notes symbolizes regeneration. Above her, on the canopy, rests a skeleton wired with sticks of dynamite, clutching a bouquet of flowers—a startling image that feels both allegorical and deeply personal.
For Kahlo, the presence of death was not just metaphorical. As Sotheby’s points out in its press materials, she kept a papier-mâché skeleton above her bed—a way of “domesticating death” in the Mexican tradition, where Day of the Dead celebrations fuse humor and reverence for mortality. The dynamite-wired skeleton in the painting is no mere artistic flourish; it’s a direct reference to this intimate, lived reality.
“El sueño stands among Frida Kahlo’s greatest masterworks—a rare and striking example of her most surrealist impulses,” Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of Latin American Art, stated in press materials. “In this composition, Kahlo fuses dream imagery and symbolic precision with unmatched emotional intensity, creating a work that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant. It is an enduring testament to her genius and its appearance on the market presents an unparalleled opportunity to acquire a cornerstone of Surrealism.”
The timing of the sale is also significant. According to Artnet News, the market and museum world are actively re-examining the contributions of women to the Surrealist movement. Alongside Kahlo, the Sotheby’s auction will feature works by Valentine Hugo, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo, underscoring a broader shift toward recognizing female artists who were long overshadowed by their male contemporaries.
Kahlo’s own legacy has undergone a dramatic transformation. During her lifetime, she was often seen as playing “second fiddle” to her husband, the renowned muralist Diego Rivera. Yet in the decades since her death in 1954, Kahlo’s reputation has soared—both in the art market and in popular culture. Her paintings, diaries, and distinctive style have inspired countless exhibitions, fashion designers, and even political movements. A major exhibition set for 2026 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Tate Modern in London will further cement her place in the canon of modern art.
“Her greatest works derive from this moment between the late 1930s and the early 1940s,” Dawes told the Associated Press. “She has had a variety of tribulations in her romantic life with Diego, in her own life with her health, but at the same time she’s really at the height of her powers.” Kahlo’s life was marked by profound pain: a devastating bus accident at 18 left her bedridden for months, requiring numerous surgeries and years of recovery. It was during these periods of physical suffering that she turned to painting, using art as both therapy and self-expression. The result was a body of work that is unsparing in its honesty and dazzling in its imagination.
While El sueño (La cama) stands as the star lot, the upcoming auction will also showcase significant pieces by other Surrealist luminaries. René Magritte’s La Représentation (1962), estimated at up to $6 million, offers a rare sporting theme from the Belgian artist, while Dorothea Tanning’s Interior with Sudden Joy (1951) and Salvador Dalí’s Symbiose de la tête aux coquillages (1931) round out the highlights. The event follows Sotheby’s recent successes, including a $136 million Surrealist collection sale in London and the consignment of major collections from figures like cosmetics magnate Leonard Lauder and Chicago collectors Jay and Cindy Pritzker.
Notably, El sueño (La cama) will be offered without a financial guarantee—a move that adds a layer of suspense to the proceedings. Auction houses often secure such guarantees to protect high-value works from failing to sell, but in this case, the painting’s rarity and significance appear to stand on their own. The sale also comes at a time when overall auction totals have been declining for several years, making the outcome all the more closely watched.
As the art world prepares for this landmark sale, the broader conversation about gender, legacy, and the value of art continues to evolve. Kahlo’s resilience and vision—her ability to turn personal pain into universal art—resonate as powerfully today as they did more than eight decades ago. Whether El sueño (La cama) sets a new record or not, its return to the public eye is a reminder of the enduring power of creativity in the face of adversity.
