Frida Kahlo's 'Diego y yo' self-portrait sells for $34.9 million, shattering records


Frida Kahlo's final self-portrait, "Diego y yo," is now the most expensive Latin American artwork ever sold at auction.
The 1949 oil painting sold for $34.9 million on Tuesday night during Sotheby's Modern Evening Sale in New York City. Painted five years before her death, it features Kahlo with a portrait of her husband, Diego Rivera, covering part of her forehead. "Diego y yo" was last sold in 1990 for $1.4 million. The previous record for a Kahlo painting was set in 2016, when her 1939 piece "Two Nudes in the Forest" sold at auction for $8 million.
Gregorio Luke, a Mexican and Latin American art expert, told NBC News that Kahlo was inspired by art from around the world and influenced by different cultures. He said he believes Kahlo painted a third eye in "Diego y yo" because of her fascination with Eastern tradition, and her multiculturalism intrigues the public. "She blends all these things together," Luke said. "She creates something that has a mixture of everybody. So when people look at Frida, they find in that painting something that speaks directly to them."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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