Francis Bacon’s painting “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” sold for a record $142,405,000 at Christie’s Auction House in New York on Tuesday. Christie’s says the work sold after six minutes of fierce bidding. Christie’s did not reveal the identity of the buyer.
The bacon piece is now officially the most expensive painting ever, taking the title from Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” which sold for $120 million in 2012.
A journalist looks at Francis Bacon’s paintings ” Three Studies of Lucian Freud – 1969 ” during the opening of the exhibition ‘Caravaggio and Bacon’ at the Borghese museum in Rome on September 30, 2009. A triptych by British painter Francis Bacon — “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” — sold for $142.4 million on November 12, 2013 smashing the world record for the most expensive piece of art auctioned. The work by the 20th century figurative artist, who lived from 1909 to 1992, had never before been put under the hammer until Christie’s flagship evening sale. It was bought by a New York gallery. (AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO)
This undated photo provided by Christie’s shows “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” a triptych by Francis Bacon of his friend and artist Lucian Freud. (AP Photo/Christies)
