The hits just keep on coming as the auction houses jockey to release their upcoming sales highlights. The problem is there are too many to keep straight. Today the Guardian and Bloomberg have news of a Francis Bacon painting that Sotheby’s is linking to the record-making triptych from before the crash:
The auction house believes Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror is as important as two works by Bacon which set auction records for post-war art in 2007 and 2008. First Study from Innocent X briefly held the record when it sold for $52.6m but was later pipped by a Mark Rothko. Triptych 1976 now holds the record after Roman Abramovich bought it for $86.3m, an astonishing sum that had jaws dropping – not least because it was a time when many were predicting an end to crazy auction prices.
Both the triptych and the new-to-market Bacon were part of a small and now famous 1977 show of his work at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris.
Francis Bacon painting, Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror, in Sotheby’s sale (Guardian)
