Frida Kahlo self-portrait sets auction record for Latin American painting

NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (US) – A self-portrait of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo depicting her artist husband Diego Rivera sold at auction Tuesday for $34.9 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting by a Latin American artist.

Completed in 1949, Kahlo’s “Diego Yo-Yo” was hammered at Sotheby’s in New York and sold to an anonymous buyer. The auction house said the price includes a $3.9 million fee.

“This is one of the most important works Kahlo has ever done for auction and we are delighted that it should be at Sotheby’s,” said Oliver Parker, Sotheby’s Director and Senior Manager, at the auction opening.

The painting shows a tearful Kahlo with her hair loose around her, an image of Rivera holding a third eye planted above her forehead.

Kahlo, who spent long periods in bed after a traffic accident in her youth, created some 200 paintings, sketches, and drawings – mainly self-portraits – in which she turned her misfortune into works of bold color and symbolic power.

She achieved worldwide fame after her death in 1954, and after the 1970s rose as a feminist icon.

MI