Bacon painting sets record at Christie's auction

'Study for Portrait II' (1956) by Francis Bacon [AFP] 

The sale price makes it the most expensive work of art ever by Bacon, and a record price for a painting in the post-war period in US dollars, though not in pounds -- an effect of modern exchange rates.

It was part of an auction of post-war and contemporary art that raised a total of 70.4 million pounds, the highest ever for that category in Europe, according to Christie's.

"Study for a Portrait II," painted in 1956 by the Anglo-Irish artist and part of the series inspired by the portrait of Pope Innocent X by Velasquez, was estimated to sell for 12 million pounds, the highest estimate of any work in a bumper crop of auctions this week by Christie's and rival Sotheby's.

The work portrays the pontiff looking at the ground on a black background, and differs greatly from the artist's "screaming Popes" which he painted in the early 1950s.

"We are delighted with the result ... which realized a record price establishing Bacon's position as one of the leading artistic figures of the 20th century," said Pilar Ordovas, the director of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's in London.

The painting benefitted from a touch of extra glamour because the seller was, according to specialists, the actress Sophia Loren whose late husband Carlo Ponti was a major collector.

Thursday's sale beat the previous record sale for a painting by Bacon, who died in 1992, set by "Version Nr2 of lying figure with hypodermic syringe," which sold for 15 million dollars at a Christie's auction in New York last November.

The previous record for a post-war painting, meanwhile, was set by Willem de Kooning's "Untitled," which sold for 27.1 million dollars.

As part of the auction Thursday evening, a number of acrylics by Andy Warhol, the king of pop art, also changed hands for several million pounds.

A portrait of "Brigitte Bardot," painted in 1974 and which was expected to sell for between 1.5 and two million pounds, was eventually auctioned for more than double that -- 5.39 million pounds.

The actress and sex-symbol was then 39 years old, but Warhol painted the portrait when she announced the end of her cinematic career.

Among the other major sales on Thursday was "Untitled (Black, Red, Black on Brown)" by Rothko, which was estimated to sell for between one and 1.5 million pounds, and auctioned for three million pounds.