A triptych by Francis Bacon sold for 24.3 million pounds (27.9 million euros) in an auction organized on Friday October 14 in London at Sotheby's.
Entitled "
Three studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes
", it is composed of three small canvases - approximately 35 cm by 30 cm - having served as studies for the portrait of Henrietta Moraes, one of the muses of the British painter.
Until now owned by the William S. Paley Foundation, an American businessman who founded the CBS television network, the 1963 work was estimated at 30 million pounds.
The master piece
In this work, Bacon's execution "
has a power, a quality, a confidence that it has rarely surpassed in this format
", according to Sotheby's.
The triptych was the centerpiece of this sale organized at a time when the Frieze contemporary art fair is taking place in the British capital.
Other works, by Jean Dubuffet, Andy Warhol, David Hockney or Gerhard Richter, were put on sale Friday by Sotheby's in London.
Another triptych by Bacon, "
Three Studies of Lucian Freud
", sold for $142.4 million in 2013 at Christie's in New York, ranking it among the 10 paintings having reached the highest prices. raised at auction.
Last June, a portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon sold in London for more than 43.3 million pounds.
