A 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Thursday for $54.7 million US ($77 million Cdn) at a New York art auction and became the top sale price for a work by any female artist.

The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed — titled or, in English, — surpassed the record held by Georgia O'Keeffe's , which sold at Sotheby's for $44.4 million US in 2014.

The highest price at auction for a Kahlo work was previously $34.9 million US (then $43.7 million Cdn), paid in 2021 for , depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.

The self-portrait is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico, where her body of work has been declared an artistic monument. Her works in both

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