Second Highest Price Paid for a Work of Art at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Sale

LONDON.- A painting by Irish-born artist Francis Bacon sold for 18.0 million pounds ($28.7 million) on Tuesday, the second highest price paid for a work of art at a Christie’s post-war and contemporary auction in London. “Study for a Portrait,” depicting a besuited man seated on a gilded armchair enshrouded in a sea of blue, had been expected to fetch around 11 million pounds, although the sale price includes a buyer’s premium which the estimate does not. The most expensive work of art sold at an equivalent sale at Christie’s, London, was also by Bacon — his “Triptych” raised 26.3 million pounds in 2008. Executed in 1953, between Bacon’s famous Pope series that year and his Man in Blue paintings of 1954, “Study for a Portrait” has never come to auction before. Rodrigo Moynihan, who lent Bacon a studio, was the first owner. It later belonged to Louis Le Brocquy, the renowned Irish painter, who was the last to keep

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