Triptych 1974-77 by Francis Bacon (1909-1992) sold for £26.3 million ($51.7 million/€35.2 million), becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold at Christie’s in London and the most valuable Post-War and Contemporary work sold in Europe.

Christie’s Post War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale realised a total of £72,930,500 ($143,089,641/€97,581,009). The sale was 88% sold by value and 69% sold by lot. 23 lots sold for over $1 million and 12 lots selling for over £1 million with four artist records established. The buyer breakdown was (by lot): 57% European including UK; 43% Americas.

Appearing at auction for the first time and offered from a private collection, Triptych 1974-77, is the last in the great series that Bacon painted in response to the tragic death of his lover George Dyer in 1971. Many of Bacon’s works after that date - marking what David Sylvester maintained was the absolute ‘peak period’ of Bacon’s entire career - were preoccupied with Dyer. Painted between May and June of 1974 and revisited in 1977, this great, strangely open, Baconian landscape was immediately recognised as a major landmark in his oeuvre.

Posted: 02|7|08 at 9:57 am. Filed under: UK News.