Sotheby's held three back-to-back evening sales in New York on November 20, achieving a combined total of $252.9 million ($304.5 million with fees). The highlight was Frida Kahlo's self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* (1940), which sold for $54.6 million with fees, setting a new auction record for the artist, for a Latin American artist, and for a female artist. The sales included 13 lots from the estate of Cindy and Jay Pritzker, a group of Surrealist works from an unnamed collection, and a multiple-owner Modern art sale featuring collections from the Bucksbaum family and Geri Brawerman.
The record-breaking Kahlo sale underscores the surging market for Surrealist works, fueled by recent centennial museum exhibitions. The strong performance of single-owner collections, particularly the Pritzker estate, signals sustained demand for high-quality, fresh-to-market material. However, the debate over whether the Kahlo price truly surpassed the inflation-adjusted record of Georgia O'Keeffe's *Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1* highlights ongoing complexities in auction record comparisons.