The 1940 painting is titled "El sueño (la cama)" and was auctioned in New York on Thursday for $54.66 million.
Never before has a painting by a female artist sold for so much money, according to the AFP news agency. The previous record was $44.4 million, when Georgia O'Keeffe's "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1" sold in 2014.
Only a few of Frida Kahlo's paintings have circulated on the art market after the Mexican government essentially banned the export of her works in the 1980s, The New York Times reports.
