Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Sells at Auction for Record $34.9 million

Frida Kahlo is one of Mexico’s greatest artists known for her self-portraits. They illustrated her life’s greatest sufferings such as her tumultuous relationship with Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. In particular, her painting “Diego y yo” sold at a record-breaking $34.9 million in Sotheby’s, a New York private auction. Frida’s painting is now the highest sold artwork by a Latin American artist. 

The buyer of the painting is Argentinian, Eduardo F. Costantini, the founder of the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires. The last time “Diego y yo” was sold was at Sotheby’s in 1990 for $1.43 million. At the time, Kahlo was the first ever Latin American to achieve a price above one million dollars. Kahlo’s previous auction record was $8 million for her 1939 painting “Two Nudes in the Forest,” which was auctioned in 2016, according to Sotheby’s.

In Mexico, much of Kahlo’s art is recognized as an artistic monument, which gives a legal status that prevents the sale of prominent 19th and 20th century Mexican art. Gregorio Luke, the former director of the Museum of Latin American Art in California notes, “Frida is becoming one of the most popular artists in the world. The price is the result of massive pent-up interest in the artist and very little inventory,” he said. Gregorio Luke explains that due to Mexican laws preventing most sales such as Kahlo’s, the record-breaking $34.9 million is due to limited inventory. “There are probably less than 20 to 30 paintings of hers on the market.”

Frida Kahlo’s “Diego y yo” sold for $34.9 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Tuesday. Credit via Sotheby’s

Painted in 1949, “Diego y yo” marks the final self-portrait painted by Frida five years before her death. The portrait illustrates her husband, Diego Rivera, above her brow upon her tear-stricken face. “Diego y yo,” is an intense painting that depicts Frida’s emotionally painful marriage. Kahlo first met her husband Rivera when she was a 22-year-old art student. At the time, Rivera was 42 years old and was a successful mural artist that had already undergone two unsuccessful marriages. Rivera was notorious for being a self-proclaimed womanizer, yet still settled down with Kahlo when they first married in 1929. Infidelities on both sides led to divorce in 1939 only to remarry the following year. 

The painting, “Diego y yo,” was commissioned by two friends of Kahlo and was created due to an affair Rivera was having with Mexican actress Maria Félix. One can see the despair in Kahlo that is depicted in the painting since Kahlo’s hair is shown strangling her neck as she tearfully looks at the viewer. The reason for her mourning was over Rivera since he is ingrained in the center of her forehead. By placing a three-eyed Rivera on her forehead, Kahlo indicates that he is an obsession of her mind and the cause of her pain. 

Nevertheless, Kahlo’s ability to illustrate her twisted relationship with Rivera speaks to many identities. Kahlo’s ever-growing popularity is multicultural and is worth noting that greater representation and even greater heights of being valued in underrepresented industries are on the way for Latin American artists. 

Frida Kahlo’s original self portrait titled “Diego y yo”