Frida Kahlo’s 1940 Masterpiece 'El sueño' Poised to Shatter Auction Records at Sotheby's

Frida Kahlo’s powerful 1940 self-portrait, titled El sueño (La cama) (The Dream (The Bed)), is set to be a major highlight at Sotheby's Exquisite Corpus Evening Auction in New York on November 20, 2025. The artwork carries a substantial pre-sale estimate ranging from $40 million to $60 million. This valuation places the piece in a position to potentially establish a new global benchmark for any work by a female artist sold at auction. The appearance of this key Kahlo canvas—one that exists outside of Mexico’s institutional holdings and museum collections—underscores the high regard the market currently holds for canonical modernist art.

The painting itself plunges the viewer into a fantastical, dream-like realm. Measuring 74 by 98 cm, the canvas depicts Kahlo asleep in a four-poster bed, appearing to float through the sky. She is enveloped by vines, which serve as potent symbols of rebirth and renewal. Surrounding her are complex symbols related to the enduring themes of mortality and existence. Most strikingly, a large skeletal figure rests above the canopy, connected to detonators and clutching a bouquet of flowers. This imagery reflects Kahlo’s personal habits; she famously kept a small papier-mâché skeleton positioned above her own bed, symbolizing the inseparable relationship between life and its inevitable end.

The scarcity of the painting contributes significantly to its elevated expected price. The artwork has only been displayed publicly once before, during the late 1990s. This landmark auction is integrated into a broader event focusing on Surrealist masterpieces, featuring works by luminaries such as Dalí and Magritte. This positioning solidifies the sale as a pivotal moment for the Surrealism market as a whole. Despite being grouped with these artists, Kahlo famously distanced herself from the movement, stating: “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

The last major auction record for a Kahlo piece was set in 2021 when her 1949 painting, Diego y yo, achieved a final price of $34.9 million. That sale simultaneously secured the highest price ever paid for a piece of Latin American art at auction. However, the current auction record for a female artist is held by Georgia O’Keeffe. Her 1932 work, Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, sold for $44.4 million back in 2014. Should El sueño reach even the lower end of its $40 million estimate, it would come exceptionally close to surpassing O’Keeffe’s long-standing benchmark.

The art market for Surrealism is currently experiencing a significant boom, with its overall share of the global art market increasing sharply from 9.3% to 16.8% between 2018 and 2024. The outcome of this specific sale will undoubtedly influence the future valuation trajectories for leading female modernists on the international art stage. While recent New York sales have seen several records established for women artists, including Marlene Dumas’s Miss January selling for $13.6 million, the overall market atmosphere remains characterized by cautious optimism.