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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Sian Cain and agencies

Frida Kahlo self-portrait sells for $54.7m to set new auction record for a female artist

Frida Kahlo, El Sueno (La Cama) by Frida Kahlo, which has sold for $54.7m at auction in New York.
El sueño (La cama) by Frida Kahlo, which has sold for $54.7m at auction in New York. Photograph: Courtesy Sotheby’s

A 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7m (£41.8m, A$84.7m) at a New York art auction, setting a new top sale price for a work by any female artist.

El sueño (La cama), or The Dream (The Bed), which depicts Kahlo asleep in a bed with a smiling skeleton wrapped in dynamite on the canopy above her, sold on Thursday night at a Sotheby’s auction of surrealist art after four minutes of bidding.

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