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Frida Kahlo's 'The Dream' Shatters Records
20 Nov, 2025
Summary
- Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait 'The Dream' auctioned for millions.
- Painting may set a new record for a female artist's work.
- The artwork explores themes of sleep, death, and anxiety.
A significant 1940 self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, titled "The Dream (The Bed)," is poised to make art market history at Sotheby's auction in New York. The painting carries an estimated value of $40 million to $60 million.
Should "The Dream" exceed $44.4 million, it will surpass the current record for any female artist's work, set in 2014. Kahlo's "Diego and I" previously fetched $34.9 million in 2021, with private sales rumored to be higher.
The artwork, last displayed publicly in the late 1990s, depicts Kahlo asleep with a skeleton above her, symbolizing her deep-seated fears and anxieties about mortality, particularly in relation to her lifelong struggle with pain following a severe accident.
