KNOCKED down at £19m, Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes was the top lot of London’s Contemporary art auction series last week by some margin.
Offered at Christie's
evening sale on February 14, it was one of seven large-scale
canvases produced by the artist in 1963 and one of 16 portraits of
the model. With the estimate 'on request' only, but thought to be
£15m-20m, it drew a three-way phone competition and sold to an
anonymous buyer.
Christie's 65-lot sale generated a £70.3m
hammer total and the overall £86.8m for the week was their highest
overall total for a Contemporary art series in London.
A full report of the Contemporary art sales
will appear in a future issue.
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