Hilda Trujillo Soto, the former longtime director of the Museo Frida Kahlo (Casa Azul), has alleged that numerous artworks by Frida Kahlo are missing from the museum's collection and may have been sold at auction in the U.S. to private collectors. In a blog post, she accused the Casa Azul board of ignoring evidence of missing art uncovered during her 18-year tenure, and claimed that the sale or transfer of works from the Diego Rivera inventory would violate both the artist's bequest to the people of Mexico and Mexican law. Several missing works, including the painting *Peoples' Congress for Peace* (1952), which sold for $2.66 million at Sotheby's in 2020, appear to have passed through Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art in New York.
This matters because Kahlo and Rivera's works are designated "artistic monuments of the nation" under Mexican law, making their unauthorized export illegal. The allegations raise serious questions about the stewardship of national cultural heritage by a major museum trust administered by the Banco de México. If proven, the case could trigger legal action, restitution demands, and a broader reckoning with how Mexican art treasures are tracked and protected from illicit sales abroad.