Sotheby's announced the consignment of Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)*, estimated at $40–60 million, for a November 2025 single-owner sale titled "Exquisite Corpus." The work is expected to break Kahlo's auction record of $34.9 million set in 2021 and potentially surpass the $44.4 million record for a woman artist held by Georgia O'Keeffe. The painting depicts Kahlo lying on a floating bed with a skeleton above, created during a turbulent period following Leon Trotsky's assassination and her divorce from Diego Rivera.
This sale matters because it signals continued strength in the market for female Surrealists, a segment that has seen dramatic price increases since the 2022 Venice Biennale. The Kahlo work is one of the few not in a museum or in Mexico, making it a rare opportunity for collectors. The auction will test whether high-value art can still command record prices amid a shaky broader art market, and it underscores the growing financial recognition of women artists historically undervalued by the market.