Kahlo self-portrait brings $5.6 million

A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $5.6 million, 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 this week. 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.