Frida Kahlo’s Auction Record Is Now $55 Million. Women Artists Are on the Rise.

Frida Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama), 1940, sold for nearly $55 million at Sotheby’s on Thursday. (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

The record-breaking result for Frida Kahlo’s surreal self-portrait El sueño (La cama) Thursday evening at Sotheby’s in New York highlights a trend gaining steam for female artists whose works are fetching ever higher prices.

Offered from an anonymous private collection, Kahlo’s 1940 painting sold for $54.7 million—achieving an auction record for a work of art by any woman. El sueño (La cama), or The dream (The bed), sold in a little over four minutes for a hammer price, before fees, of $47 million to a bidder on the phone with Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby’s head of Latin American art. The buyer is anonymous.

Until now, Georgia O’Keeffe held the record for the highest price achieved at auction for a female artist. O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, from 1932, sold for $44.4 million in 2014 at an American art sale at Sotheby’s in New York, blowing past a $15 million high estimate.

Though Kahlo’s El Sueño broke that record, for perspective, consider that more than a dozen works by male artists have sold for more than $100 million at auction. Earlier this week, Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, from the collection of the cosmetics executive Leonard Lauder, sold for an extraordinary $205 million —$236.4 million, with fees—far above the presale estimate of about $150 million.

“A full decade plus after the landmark O’Keeffe sale, the market has spoken and set a new global benchmark,” said Suzanne Gyorgy, a partner in Emigrant Bank’s fine art practice. “Slowly but surely, women artists are claiming their rightful place—recognized as accomplished, talented, top-tier, and innovative in their own right.”

El Sueño (La Cama) depicts the Mexican artist in a wooden four-posted bed covered in vines, with a skeleton wrapped in dynamite resting on top. The painting was sold with an irrevocable bid from a third party that was secured only recently, likely ensuring the painting was likely going to break O’Keeffe’s record.

The result comes during a week when works by several female artists had strong showings. British-born painter Cecily Brown’s High Society, 1997-98, sold for $9.8 million, with fees, at Sotheby’s “Now and Contemporary” sale, breaking a previous auction record for the artist of $6.7 million.

There were also several near records. Agnes Martin’s The Garden, from 1964 sold for $17.6 million, with fees, just below a record sale of $18.7 million for Grey Stone II, 1961, achieved at a Sotheby’s sale of the collection of Emily Fisher Landau two years ago in New York. At Christie’s 21st Century sale on Wednesday, Amy Sherald’s A Clear Unspoken Granted Magic, painted in 2017, sold at Christie’s for $4.1 million, with fees, above a $3 million high estimate. It was the second highest price achieved for a work by Sherald, who is most widely known for painting Michelle Obama’s portrait.

The Christie’s sale also included artist records for New York-based artist Firelei Báez, whose Untitled (Colonization in America, Visual History Wall Map, Prepared by Civic Education Service), 2021, sold for $1.1 million, five times a high estimate, and for the Colombian artist Olga De Amaral from the collection of the late billionaire Elaine Wynn, whose Pueblo H, fetched $3.1 million, also five times a high estimate.

That works by women are achieving ever higher prices has been a long-running story that art experts believe still has plenty of room to run, particularly considering the gap at the top.

Sotheby’s auction of Frida Kahlo’s surreal self-portrait El sueño (La cama). Photo: Julian Cassady

There have been bright spots for women in recent years, such as when two works by abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell broke previous records for the artist during the November 2023 New York sales. Mitchell’s Untitled, 1959, sold at Christie’s for nearly $29.2 million, with fees included, while Sunflowers, 1990-91, sold at Sotheby’s for $28 million.

Many works by women have consistently gained traction, even as the art market—as measured by public auction sales—softened. Although global sales at the top three auction houses—Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips—slipped 6.2% in the first half of the year, according to ArtTactic, a record for a living female artist was set when Marlene Dumas’ Miss January, 1997, sold for a $13.6 million, with fees in May.

The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting released in October made the case for women becoming an increasing force in the art market. According to the report, “women collected more—and spent more on—works by female artists.”

Matthew Newton, director, art advisory, at UBS points to data in the report showing that wealthy Gen Z and millennial women spent more on art, on average, than Gen Z and millennial men. But women in older generations—GenX and baby boomers—spent far less than average than their male counterparts.

“If that pattern holds and those women are controlling more wealth over the next 10-20 years, that’s going to be a very interesting market dynamic,” Newton says. “The record for a living male artist is almost 10 times that of a female artist—it’s going to change over that time period.”

The shift may reflect women gaining more power in society, and choosing not to get married or to get married later, according to Gyorgy. They are often “single by choice, creating their own lives, and buying art that speaks to them,” she said in an interview.

Although the private collection that contained Kahlo’s El Sueño included 80 works steeped in surrealist art, Kahlo rejected the label. “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality,” she said, according to the Museum of Modern Art in New York’s short biography of the artist.

Surrealism in general has regained popularity in recent years, with next generation collectors drawn to these early 20th-century, subconscious-soaked works, according to a recent report from Deloitte and ArtTactic. Nearly all bids for female surrealists were by millennials in the first half of the year, the report said.

Beside her status as one of the best known female artists, Kahlo’s market is shaped by the fact she created few paintings, and that many can’t be exported from Mexico according to Mexican law, Gyorgy adds. El sueño also hadn’t been seen on the market since 1980, when it sold for $51,000. “The rarity factor can’t be denied,” she says.

But the Kahlo record also comes at a moment when the market is finding stronger footing, exemplified by the $527.5 million sale of 24 works from Lauder’s collection at Sotheby’s on Tuesday, followed by a contemporary auction that included the sale of Maurizio Cattelan’s America —a gold toilet—for $12.1 million and the $48.3 million sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Crowns (Peso Neto).

Christie’s and Phillips also posted strong sales. Newton calls it a “good old-fashioned market,” that’s not frothy but solid. “It’s more likely that we would see prices accelerate to the upside for art than the opposite in the particular environment,” Newton says. “And I do think that could be led in some ways by women artists.”

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com