Maybe the guy who bought the R10 million toy car saved some of his pennies and bought this too? Until now, the most expensive piece of artwork ever sold was Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream‘ for the neat sum of R1,2 billion. Now, Mr Munch has been toppled by someone whose surname is ‘Bacon’.

Francis Bacon in an Irish-born figurative artist who is known for his ‘bold, graphic and emotionally raw imagery’. Despite that reputation, his best-selling piece is a three-piece study of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud. And it was sold within seven minutes of fierce bidding at Christie’s auction house.

It was the first time that all Three Studies of Lucian Freud had been offered at an auction. Bidding opened at a casual R800 million, while its presale estimate was R850 million. Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s Europe, said the work was:

One of the greatest paintings to come up for auction in a current generation. It marks Bacon and Freud’s relationship, paying tribute to the creative and emotional kinship between the two artists

Of course, the auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer. This is done to prevent people calling him a ‘ponce’.

[Source : BBC]