The Wounded Table: New hope for Frida Kahlo's long-lost painting

It seems to be a matter related to the gift of ubiquity . Now, it was in Galicia , as happened in Michoacán a decade ago, or last year in Morelos . The Wounded Table appeared once again, a lost painting by Frida Kahlo. Every single time, none of those who have said they had it showed it to the public. We keep watching the same old out-of-focus photograph.

published Saturday information according to which the painting would have appeared and would be sold. The outlet asserts that The Wounded Table , “the main work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo,a top figure of surrealism ” has been put up for sale by an art merchant from Rianxco , Cristian López Márquez, who represents the interest of the owner, a Mexican living in Europe.

López Márquez has not released the name of the owner nor presented the painting to the public. Doing so is against the “ transparent ” processes of the purchase and sale of art; it seems suspicious, to say the least. He expects the painting to be purchased for 40 to 50 million euros : “The owner looks for a buyer within the circle of European art , in which great collectors of works get this style of paintings,” asserted Cristian López to the Spanish newspaper. According to the newspaper, the merchant is the owner of The Billion Art , a company focused on the purchase and sale of art.

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In another part of the text, it is informed that during the 65 years when nothing was known about the painting, it went through two important private collections before arriving at its actual owner.

The Wounded Table

, currently missing, has been considered one of the most important paintings by Kahlo ; it is said to be 1.2 meters tall and 2.4 meters long , and the last time it was seen was in 1955 , after Diego Rivera requested it for an exhibition in Polland .

It was an exceptional painting because, due to health reasons, the painter worked from bed in sizes that she adapted to stands. The most important exception to that was “Las twoFridas,” owned by the Modern Art Museum , and that is a painting of big dimensions.

According to the register of the Dolores Olmedo Museum , there are 248 paintings by Frida Kahlo , including oil paintings, drawings, and journals. Kahlo did not have a vast production of paintings and this makes it possible to have greater clarity on which of them exist, where they are, and which are lost.

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A decade ago, in Michoacán , a collector called José Antonio Castelazo , asserted he had five oil paintings by Frida Kahlo, including this painting.

Art critics Teresa del Conde and R aquel Tibol questioned the authenticity of that version of the painting.

A year ago, investigations on a purchase agreement regarding The Wounded Table arrived at the Morelos Attorney General’s Office . On June 20 , the General Legal Direction of the state’s Interior Ministry answered a person’s request to note two documents with which it was intended to take the painting to London. Back then, it was said the painting was worth USD $20 million .

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