Freud picture in £17m record sale

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

The masterpiece, which was sold by a private European collector, fetched 33.6 million dollars (£17.2 million) in the sale at New York's Rockefeller Centre.

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping beat the previous world auction record for a work by a living artist, held by Jeff Koons' Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold), which fetched 23.5 million dollars (£11.3 million) last year.

The 1995 Freud painting depicts rotund London benefits supervisor Sue Tilley, now 51, sleeping on a dilapidated sofa.

Ms Tilley, now a Jobcentre manager, said: "I'm thrilled. I still can't believe such a bizarre thing has happened to me. It hasn't sunk in properly."

Asked how she felt about posing nude, she said: "At first, I was a little bit embarrassed but after a while I just got used to it and it became a completely normal thing to do, like going to the doctor."

She also said reports claiming that she had weighed 20st when she posed for the painting were inaccurate and said she did not know how much she weighed today. "I never weigh myself because I can't be bothered," she said.

Asked if she would ever sit for another artist, Ms Tilley said it was "hard to know where to go" as she had "started with the very best".

It was the first time Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which was the highlight of Christie's New York Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, had appeared at auction.

The 85-year-old British artist first painted "Big Sue" in Evening In The Studio (1993), for which Ms Tilley had to lie in an uncomfortable pose on a bare floor. Freud then bought the ragged sofa depicted in the 1995 painting for Ms Tilley, who was introduced to Freud by Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, to lie on.