A 1975 set of three self-portraits by Francis Bacon fetched 17.3 million pounds ($34.5 million) in London, the most expensive lot at Christie’s International sale of contemporary art.
At least four bidders competed for the 14-inch-high, gray- hued oil canvases “Three Studies for Self-Portrait”, featuring faces that are twisted, sliced and gorged. The lot, with a presale estimate of more than 10 million pounds and seen in public for the first time, went to an anonymous phone bidder. The record for Bacon was set in May when “Triptych, 1976″, depicting a headless corpse eaten by vultures sold for $86 million.
Christie’s 58-lot auction last night netted 86.2 million pounds, against the company’s own low estimate of 80 million pounds. Eighty-three percent of the lots were sold. Bacon’s piece was one of four trophy works - the other three are by Lucian Freud, Jeff Koons and Lucio Fontana - whose combined estimates represented half the auction’s value. The Bacon was the only one that sold for much more than its top estimate.
Koons’s 11-foot, 2-inch-high chromium-steel sculpture “Balloon Flower (Magenta)” sold for an artist record of 12.9 million pounds, against a presale estimate of 12 million pounds. Freud’s 1980 canvas, “Naked Portrait With Reflection”, showing a nude model reclining on a battered sofa, sold for 11.8 million pounds, compared with a top estimate 15 million pounds. (Bloomberg)