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Frida's "Roots" sets record

18:12 H | Topics: Arts

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo's piece entitled "Roots" has set a record for being the most expensive Latino painting sold to date:

A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $5.6-million (U.S.), setting a new record for the artist and for a Latin American work of art at auction.

Roots, among Kahlo's few full-length self-portraits, was sold to an anonymous phone bidder at Sotheby's auction house Wednesday evening. The 1943 oil-on-metal shows the artist reclining in a bright orange dress with leafy roots growing out of her body into the ground -- a symbol of being nourished by the Earth. It had never before appeared on the public market, Sotheby's said.

The previous record for a Latin American work of art at auction also was for a Kahlo work, Self-Portrait, executed in 1929. It sold for $5-million, Sotheby's said.

Via / Globe and Mail

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