Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

The Self Portrait Auction That Made History For Female Artists

A haunting 1940 self portrait by Frida Kahlo titled “El sueño (La cama)” or “The Dream (The Bed)” sold Thursday for $54.7 million at Sotheby’s in New York, becoming the top selling work by any female artist at auction and surpassing the record held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” which sold for $44.4 million in 2014. The painting depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden colonial style bed floating in the clouds, draped in a golden blanket and entangled in crawling vines and leaves with a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite lying above the bed, offering what Sotheby’s called “a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death.” The sale also topped Kahlo’s own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist, surpassing her 1949 painting “Diego and I” which went for $34.9 million in 2021, though some art historians have scrutinized the sale for cultural reasons and raised concerns that the painting could again disappear from public view after not being exhibited since the late 1990s.

Kahlo created the work during years when she was confined to bed following a devastating bus accident at age 18 that upended her life, leading her to start painting while bedridden and undergo a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis while wearing casts until her death in 1954 at age 47. During this time she came to view her bed as a bridge between worlds as she explored her mortality through art that vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, always insisting “I never painted dreams, I painted my own reality” despite being grouped with surrealist artists. 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 that cannot be sold abroad or destroyed, though this particular painting from an undisclosed private collection is legally eligible for international sale and has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in New York, London and Brussels. Kahlo’s great niece Mara Romeo Kahlo celebrated the sale’s significance by saying she’s proud her aunt is one of the most valued women because “what woman doesn’t identify with Frida, or what person doesn’t? I think everyone carries a little piece of my aunt in their heart,” proving that art created from chronic pain and past trauma can transcend time to become the most valuable female artist work ever sold at auction.

PrevPreviousThis Senior Couple Got Married In The Most UNEXPECTED Place
NextThe AI Breakthrough That Could End Deforestation ForeverNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

This New Underwater Fossil Discovery is 512 Million Year Old

February 6, 2026

Paleontologists have unearthed a treasure trove of fossils from 512 million years ago including 90 species previously unknown to science. The discovery comprises 153 different species from 16 major animal groups including sponges, arthropods and bizarre segmented apex predators known as radiodonts that make up a complex food web, dating

Read More
Happy News

What Makes Some Dogs GENIUS Word Learners

February 6, 2026

Scientists have discovered that some exceptionally skilled dogs called gifted word learners can quickly remember the names of toys, and new research reveals the key factor behind their unusual ability isn’t about curiosity but about their relationship with humans. Animal behaviorist Andrea Sommese of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Read More
Happy News

How Our Voices Affect Dog Behavior

February 6, 2026

Hearing a human voice can affect a dog more than previously thought as new research suggests that angry or happy voices are linked to measurable changes in dogs’ balance, with angry voices often causing destabilizing effects that physically sway their bodies. Scientists led by Nadja Affenzeller at the University of

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.