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Boom for Bacon and Freud
Amar Singh, Media Correspondent19 May 2008
A Lucian Freud masterpiece featuring a nude on a tattered sofa and a previously unseen Francis Bacon triptych are together expected to make more than £25 million at auction.
They have been described as two of the most valuable and important post-war works to come up for sale.
Both will go under the hammer at Christie's in London on 30 June, with Freud's Naked Portrait With Reflection estimated to sell for between £10 million and £15 million and Bacon's Three Studies For A Self-Portrait for around £10million.
The sale follows the success of recent art auctions in New York. Christies post-war and contemporary sale made £221 million with Freud's Benefit Supervisor Sleeping fetched £17.3 million - a world record price for a work by a living artist sold at an auction. At Sotheby's in New York last week Bacon's Triptych 1976 sold for a record £43 million.
Both are reported to have been bought by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who may be among bidders at the London auction. The pieces are being exhibited in London and Hong Kong ahead of the sale.
Pilar Ordovas, head of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's, said: "The growing demand for works by Freud and Bacon has seen them recognised as two of the most talented-influential and valuable artists of the late 20th century."
Painted in 1980, the Freud was acquired for £2.8million by an anonymous bidder at an auction in 1998. In the top right hand corner of the picture a pair of legs are apparent - the artist reflected in a mirror. Bacon's triptych was painted in Paris in 1975, as he was trying to recover from the suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971. The painting's owner acquired it in Paris in 1976 and it has never been seen before in public.
