A portrait of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon sold for more than 50 million euros

A portrait of British artist Lucian Freud, painted by his friend the painter Francis Bacon, sold on Wednesday for more than 43.3 million pounds (more than 50 million euros) at auction in London.

Read alsoThe portrait of David Hockney by Lucian Freud sold for more than 17 million euros

The portrait, which had been estimated at more than 35 million pounds, was the centerpiece of a sale organized by Sotheby's, bringing together works by Andy Warhol, Banksy and David Hockney.

On this canvas, which belonged to a private European collector and had not been shown to the public since 1965, Lucian Freud stares at the artist with clenched fists, ready to get up from the bench on which he is sitting.

It is "

" Sotheby's said.

Painted in 1964 by the artist at the peak of his career, the painting illustrates "

,” the auction house added in a statement.

Intense friendship

The two artists, who had met twenty years earlier, shared an intense friendship for more than four decades until jealousy and feuds put an end to it in the 1980s. Before the sale, Tom Eddison, director of the contemporary art department at Sotheby's, had pointed out to AFP that the portrait conceals "

".

Francis Bacon painted Lucian Freud, a major painter of the 20th century and grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis, fourteen times between 1964 and 1971. A triptych dedicated to his friend was sold for more than 142 million dollars in 2013 in New York , a record for the British painter.

Born in 1909 in Dublin, Francis Bacon died in Madrid in 1992.