Frida Kahlo, El sueño (La cama) (1940). Courtesy of Sotheby's.
Last month, a masterpiece by Frida Kahlo achieved a historic milestone. Her 1954 work, El Sueño (La Cama), graced the auction block at Sotheby’s New York, where it commanded an astonishing $54.7 million, securing its place as the most expensive artwork by a female artist ever sold at auction. This landmark sale powerfully underscores the accelerating appreciation for women artists in the global market. The previous record, set just over a decade ago, saw Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932) realize $44 million. Below, drawing upon data from the esteemed Artnet Price Database, we present the ten most highly valued women artists who now reign at the pinnacle of this dynamic sector.
10. Lee Krasner
Lee Krasner photographed in August 1953. Photo by Tony Vaccaro/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Auction record: $11.6 million, for The Eye is the First Circle (1960)
Krasner embarked on her seminal Umber series, later recognized as Night Journeys, during a period of profound grief following the deaths of her husband, action painter Jackson Pollock, and subsequently her mother. This early exemplar, imbued with an otherworldly presence of "eerie eyes," achieved an impressive sale at Sotheby’s in May 2019, surpassing its low estimate by $1 million and setting a new personal record for Krasner, eclipsing the $6 million mark previously established by Shattered Light (1954) at Christie’s in 2017.
Lee Krasner, The Eye is the First Circle (1960) on view at “Lee Krasner: Living Colour” at Barbican Art Gallery in London, 2019. Photo: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Barbican Art Gallery.
This particular work has been featured in every major retrospective dedicated to Krasner’s oeuvre. Notably, it was stolen in 1991, only to be recovered thanks to an anonymous tip and subsequently acquired by art dealer Sarah Wittenborn Miller, who later consigned it. The painting is now a cherished possession of Maryland’s Glenstone Museum.
9. Jenny Saville
Jenny Saville. Photo: Tyler Mitchell.
Auction record: $12.4 million, for Propped (1992)
The spectacular, self-destructing artwork by Banksy momentarily eclipsed this legendary sale during London’s Frieze Week in 2018. The event saw Propped achieve double its estimate (a staggering $16 million today when adjusted for inflation), briefly establishing Saville as the most expensive living female artist, a title she held until Dumas's ascendancy.
Jenny Saville, Propped (1992). Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Saville’s monumental, seven-foot-tall feminist declaration originated from the collection of consultant David Teiger. However, it was Charles Saatchi, founder of the Saatchi Gallery, who first acquired it in 1992, subsequently featuring it in his controversial 1997 exhibition, "Sensation." Following the 2018 sale, Kenny Schachter revealed that Russian investor Alex Greenberg was the fortunate buyer who successfully secured this distinguished work.
8. Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 2008. Photo: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images.
Auction record: $13.6 million, for Miss January (1997)
Previously a prized possession within Miami’s Rubell Collection museum, Miss January elevated Dutch painter Marlene Dumas to the status of art’s top-selling living female artist when it sold through Christie’s this past May. Though the result fell toward the lower end of its estimate, it impressively doubled Dumas’s previous record, established in 2008 when Sotheby’s sold The Visitor (1995) for $6.33 million.
Marlene Dumas’s Miss January (1997) at Christie’s. Photo: Katya Kazakina
The monumental nine-foot-tall Miss January stands as Dumas’s undisputed magnum opus—a provocative goddess embodying the artist’s painterly versatility, her audacious engagement with pornography as inspiration, and her personal history, evoking her very first drawing: an ode to beauty contestants produced at the tender age of ten.
7. Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin in her studio on Ledoux Street, Taos, New Mexico, 1953.
Photo: Mildred Tolbert. Courtesy of the Harwood Museum of Art, Gift of Mildred Tolbert. ©Mildred Tolbert Family.
Auction record: $18.7 million, for Grey Stone II (1961)
New York’s November 2023 auctions coincided with the initial ripples of a burgeoning market slowdown. Nevertheless, this early and pristine example of Martin’s minimalist grids soared, achieving more than double its high estimate. Untitled #44 (1974) had previously set Martin’s existing record just the previous fall, selling for $17.7 million.
Agnes Martin, Grey Stone II (1961). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Grey Stone II, however, held a special provenance as part of the illustrious collection of the late patron Emily Fisher Landau. Such dedicated single-owner sales invariably attract significant interest. Furthermore, it is the sole instance of Martin’s three majestic large-scale works incorporating gold leaf to find its way into private hands. Indeed, Martin produced only 60 grids in total, making their appearance at auction a rarity.
6. Tamara de Lempicka
Tamara de Lempicka at Her Easel. Photo: Bettmann / Getty Images.
Auction record: $21.1 million, for Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (1932)
This quintessential Lempicka electrified London’s auction week in February 2020, selling at Christie’s for approximately $6 million above its high estimate, and a staggering $17 million more than its last appearance in 2009. Her market had seen a surprising surge three months prior to this work’s auction, when La Tunique Rose (1927) fetched $13.36 million at Sotheby’s.
Tamara de Lempicka, Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (1932). Sold for £16,280,000 at Christie’s London on January 5, 2020. Image courtesy Christie’s.
Lempicka was the celebrated darling of Paris’s Années folles, immortalizing the era’s elite in her iconic Art Deco style. Cabaret singer Marjorie Ferry’s wealthy fiancé commissioned Lempicka two years before the artist departed Europe. Clearly, *Marjorie Ferry* holds a special allure—another alluring Lempicka portrait failed to surpass its record earlier this year.
5. Leonora Carrington
Portrait of Leonora Carrington in her studio, opposite her painting “Nunscape at Manzanillo”. Museum: PRIVATE COLLECTION. Author: Kati Horna.
Auction record: $28.4 million, Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945)
Dagobert sold at Sotheby’s last May following ten minutes of fervent bidding, having initially been estimated to fetch between $12 million and $18 million. Carrington, who had dated Surrealist Max Ernst in Paris and famously escaped a mental institution in Santander, arrived in Mexico City at age 28, a transformative period that heralded the creation of this very painting.
Leonora Carrington, Les Distractions de Dagobert. Courtesy of Sothebys.
Dagobert spectacularly shattered the artist’s existing record, previously set when The Garden of Paracelsus (1957) sold for $3.3 million in 2022. Dagobert is markedly brighter, more richly wrought. Carrington herself believed that pregnancy endowed her with heightened artistic powers. Developer Eduardo F. Costantini underbid on the work in 1995, when it sold for $475,000; he successfully acquired it this time around.
4. Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell in France, 1991. Photograph by © David Turnley/Corbis.
Auction record: $29.1 million, for Untitled (1959)
This monumental, jewel-toned tapestry of abstraction established itself as art history’s highest-selling abstract work by a woman when it came to auction in November 2023. Hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein, its owner for 18 years, was the discerning consignor of this exceptional painting.
Joan Mitchell, Untitled (ca. 1959). Courtesy of Christie’s Images, Ltd.
Christie’s hailed Untitled as "a best-in-class example" within Mitchell’s celebrated oeuvre (a frequent accolade for such record-breaking works), praising her poetic mastery of hue and her athletic, whip-like gestures. Indeed, she was once a championship skater. Untitled originates from the zenith of Mitchell’s painterly power, created in the very year she transitioned from New York to Paris.
3. Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois, 1982. Photo: Jack Mitchell / Getty Images.
Auction record: $32.8 million, for Spider (1996)
This early manifestation of Bourgeois’s iconic spider sculptures, which famously evoke the intricate facets of maternal love, exceeded its low estimate at Sotheby’s in May 2023. This ten-foot-tall bronze, the inaugural piece in an edition of six, now holds the distinction of being the most expensive sculpture by a woman artist ever presented at auction.
Louise Bourgeois, Spider (1996). Photo by Edouard Fraipont. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
Fundação Itaú, the non-profit arm of Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco, consigned this particular Spider 27 years after its cofounder Olavo Setubal acquired it from the 1996 Biennale de São Paulo. The sale was a strategic move to raise funds, allowing the bank to further invest in Brazilian art. It now resides within a private collection.
2. Georgia O’Keeffe
Artist Georgia O’Keeffe stands next to her painting Horse Skull With White Rose. Credit: Bettmann / Contributor, Getty Images
Auction record: $44.4 million, for Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932)
The recent sale of El Sueño unseated this iconic painting, which had held the record as the most expensive work by a woman artist since its sale at Sotheby’s in November 2014. That event saw a spirited, seven-person bidding war that quadrupled its initial estimate. When adjusted for inflation, O’Keeffe’s record still translates to an impressive $61 million—arguably, positioning her as still holding the market’s apex in real terms.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932). Courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
Regardless of the shifting valuations, Jimson Weed remains a quintessential example of the American painter’s iconic floral representations. Originally owned by O’Keeffe’s younger sister, the painting graced the dining room of George W. Bush’s White House for six years on loan from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, which eventually consigned it to support new acquisitions. It is now part of the distinguished collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.
1. Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo. Photo: Getty Images
Auction record: $54.6 million, for El sueño (La cama) (1940)
This ethereal self-portrait by the Mexican master achieved its remarkable sale at Sotheby’s squarely within its estimated range. With this triumph, Kahlo now stands as the undisputed pinnacle of this list, notably as its sole woman of color.
Frida Kahlo, El sueño (La cama) (1940). Courtesy Sotheby’s.
El sueño exquisitely embodies the artist’s signature motifs, from her profound Surrealist undertones to her recurring depictions of beds. It is also one of the rare instances to have circumvented Mexico’s stringent export laws governing Kahlo’s works, thanks to the discerning consignor, Selma Ertegun. The work is rich with profound symbolism, intensified by a period of intense crisis in the artist’s life. Kahlo’s health was in decline, her lover Leon Trotsky had just been assassinated, and she was in the process of reconciling with Diego Rivera when this masterpiece was created. It is already slated for exhibitions through 2028.
