Scott Reyburn has the announcement that Christie’s will be selling a Francis Bacon triptych which is estimated at nearly the record price paid for a Bacon triptych at the top of the last boom. With fees, the work would bring a record $95m or more:

Entered by an unidentified European seller, the trio of gilded-framed canvases, showing Bacon’s painter friend sitting on a wooden chair against an orange background, has never appeared on the auction market before, said Christie’s.

The work, one of only two existing, full-length triptychs of Freud, was included in the Bacon retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1971-72.

Bacon Triptych of Freud May Sell for Record $95 Million (Bloomberg)

Carol Vogel fingers Sheldon Solow, the 83 year old real estate developer, as the seller of Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes which he bought from Ernst Beyeler in 1983. Christie’s will offer in London in early February:

The Bacon portrait is not all Mr. Solow is said to be selling at Christie’s next month. Two other works from his collection are coming to auction on the evening of Feb. 7: a 1925 Miró painting, “Painting-Poem,” which is expected to fetch $9.2 million to $13.8 million; and “Reclining Figure: Festival,” a 1951 sculpture by Henry Moore, expected to bring about $5.3 million to $8.5 million.

Quietly two weeks ago, some works by Francis Bacon disappeared from Sotheby’s auction last week raising some suspicion that the failure of a Bacon work at Christie’s had spooked the consignors. At the start of the auction, Sotheby’s announced that the works were withdrawn because of export issues. Colin Gleadell reveals that the story is far more surprising:

they had been denied an export license by the British government due to their national cultural importance. Dating from c.1935, they are early views of interiors made when Bacon was making a living as an interior decorator. Tate is hoping to include one of them in its exhibition about the influence of Picasso on British art next year. Curiously, both had been on the market before in the last ten years had a UK institution wished to buy them.

Chinese Art Market Losing Steam (Telegraph)

Colin Gleadell does some digging in the market for Francis Bacon paintings that has come back to life and drawn a major sale from a significant collector. Bacon’s Study for a Portrait is on offer at Christie’s in London and June:

In 1984 it was bought from Marlborough by the Swiss entrepreneur and wine producer Donald M Hess, who, though not identified as such by Christie’s, is the seller next month.

Hess, 75, who announced his retirement from the family business last week, is one of the world’s top art collectors with more than 1,000 contemporary art works, including 30 by the American light artist James Turrell, which he displays in three museums dotted around the world in locations where his winery business operates: in Napa Valley, California; Paarl, South Africa; and Salta, Argentina. A fourth museum is being planned in the Barossa Valley, Australia. Of his art buying, Hess has said: “When I have seen an art piece which keeps me awake over several nights, I know that this art piece has touched me deeply and this is one of my most important criteria to buy an art work.” But he is not known to have previously sold any art from his collection. His website states: “Sales of artwork are for Hess taboo.”

Bacons Streaming Back on the Market (Telegraph)