Business Standard

Frida Kahlo self-portrait sells for record $35 mn at auction in New York

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait that shows the artist with the face of her husband, Diego Rivera, in the middle of her forehead, sold at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday for $34.9 million

Frida Kahlo

A staff member holds Mexican painter Frida Kahlo's 1949 self-portrait "Diego y yo", (Diego and I), at Sotheby's auction house in London, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

AP New York

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait that shows the artist with the face of her husband, Diego Rivera, in the middle of her forehead, sold at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday for USD34.9 million, an auction record for a work by a Latin American artist.

The 1949 painting, Diego and I, depicts Kahlo's tumultuous relationship with Rivera, the Mexican muralist who was far better known than she was during their lifetimes but whose fame has been eclipsed by hers in recent years.

A Rivera painting had been the previous record-holder for highest auction price for a Latin American artist's work USD9.8 million in 2018.

 

Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby's director of Latin American art, said Diego and I was painted in the same year that Rivera started an affair with her friend, the film star Maria Flix. Di Stasi described the work as "a painted summary of all of Kahlo's passion and pain, a tour de force of the raw emotive power of the artist at the peak of her abilities.

A Sotheby's spokesperson said the painting was bought Eduardo F. Costantini, the founder of a museum in Buenos Aires, for his private collection. Sotheby's did not disclose the identity of the seller.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Nov 18 2021 | 7:50 AM IST

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