Frida Kahlo self-portrait poised to shatter auction records

NEW YORK (AP) — A 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo of her asleep in a bed could make history Thursday when it goes on sale by Sotheby’s in New York.

With an estimated price of $40 million to $60 million, “El sueño (La cama)” – in English, “The Dream (The Bed)” — may surpass the top price for a work by any female artist when it goes under the hammer. That record currently stands at $44.4 million, paid at Sotheby’s in 2014 for Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1.”

The highest price at auction for a Kahlo work is $34.9 million, paid in 2021 for “Diego and I,” depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.

The painting up for auction depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden colonial-style bed, wrapped in a golden blanket embroidered with crawling vines and leaves. Above her, seemingly levitating atop the bedposts, lies a full-sized skeleton.

In its catalog note, Sotheby's said the painting “offers a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death.”

Last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s, the painting is the star of a sale of more than 100 surrealist works by artists including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning. They are from a private collection whose owner has not been disclosed.

Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at 18. She started to paint while bedridden, underwent a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, then wore casts until her death in 1954 at age 47.

“The suspended skeleton is often interpreted as a visualization of her anxiety about dying in her sleep, a fear all too plausible for an artist whose daily existence was shaped by chronic pain and past trauma,” the catalog notes.

FILE - A portrait of Frida Kahlo by Mexican photographer Wallace Marly is displayed in the new museum Casa Kahlo in Mexico City, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

FILE - Self portraits by artist Frida Kahlo, titled from left, "Self Portrait with Braids", 1941, "Self Portrait with Monkeys", 1943, and "Self Portrait with Small Monkey", 1945, are displayed as part of the exhibition "Frida & Diego: Passion Politics and Painting", at the High Museum in Atlanta, Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - Bidding representatives react after Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" sold for $450 million at Christie's in New York, Nov. 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

FILE - A painting by Frida Kahlo titled "El sueño (La cama)" or (The Dream (The Bed), is displayed at Sotheby's auction rooms in London, Sept. 19, 2025. The painting, estimated at 40-60 million US dollars, is part of a collection of surrealist masterpieces unveiled ahead of its upcoming sale in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain.

South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks strike midnight in Auckland, a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball drops in New York’s Times Square.

The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from various floors of the 240-meter (787-foot) Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s North Island on Wednesday due to forecasts of rain and possible thunderstorms.

Australia’s east coast welcomes 2026 two hours after New Zealand, but in Sydney, the country's largest city, celebrations will be held under the pall of Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. Two gunmen targeted a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15 and wounding 40.

A heavy police presence monitored the thousands who thronged to the downtown waterfront on Wednesday to watch a fireworks show centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Many officers openly carried rapid-fire rifles, in a first for the annual event.

An hour before midnight, the massacre victims will be commemorated with one minute of silence while images of a menorah are projected on the bridge pylons. The crowd has been invited to show their solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community by shining their phone torches across the harbor.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns urged Sydney residents not to stay away through fear, saying extremists would interpret smaller crowds at New Year’s Eve festivities as a victory.

“We can’t be in a situation where this horrible, criminal, terrorist event changes the way we live in our beautiful city,” Minns told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime and say that we’re not going to be cowered by this kind of terrorism,” he added.

In Indonesia, one of Australia’s nearest neighbors, cities scaled back New Year's Eve festivities as a gesture of solidarity with communities devastated by catastrophic floods and landslides that struck parts of Sumatra island a month ago, claiming more than 1,100 lives.

The capital, Jakarta, will not ring in 2026 with its usual fanfare, choosing instead subdued celebrations with a calm and reflective program centered on prayers for victims, city Gov. Pramono Anung said last week.

Makassar Mayor Munafri Arifuddin urged residents of one of Indonesia’s largest cities to forgo parties altogether, calling for prayer and reflection instead. "Empathy and restraint are more meaningful than fireworks and crowds,” he said.

Concerts and fireworks on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali have been canceled and replaced with a cultural arts event featuring 65 groups performing traditional dances.

Hong Kong, too, will ring in 2026 without the usual spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor, after a massive fire in November killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board will instead host a music show featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district. The facades of eight landmarks will turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Many parts of Asia welcome the new year by observing age-old traditions.

In Japan, crowds will gather at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo for a bell striking at midnight. In the South Korean capital Seoul, a bell tolling and countdown ceremony will be held at the Bosingak Pavilion.

Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

A person walks by illuminated decorations on New Year's Eve in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Fireworks burst over the Sydney Harbour Bridge as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Fireworks burst over the Sydney Harbour Bridge as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Ryan Seacrest and Rita Ora, hosts of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2026," in New York at the New Year's Eve Times Square Ball on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

A vendor sells New Year's eve party goods at a market in downtown Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

A families pose for a photo with a prosperity decoration to welcome 2026 Year of the Horse, following the Chinese zodiac as people visit a shopping district on new year's eve, in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A child poses for a photo with a prosperity decoration to welcome 2026 Year of the Horse, following the Chinese zodiac at a shopping district on new year's eve, in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)