More than 10 bidders from 4 continents vied to claim Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies for a portrait of Lucien Freud” at Sotheby’s “Looking Closely” sale in London earlier today. In the end, an anonymous buyer won it for $37 million, more than double its high estimate.
The Bacon was part of a stellar collection assembled by the late, Geneva-based George Kostalitz, who acquired the sixty works over a 30-year period. In all, the sale brought in $150.5 million. Contributing to that remarkable result was Salvador Dali’s “Portrait of Paul Eluard” which sold for $21.7 million, almost three times its high estimate. It was a new auction record for a surrealist work of art.
Read more at Reuters.
