LONDON. A three-panel painting by Francis Bacon could smash the auction record for the artist’s work when it is offered for sale at Sotheby’s in New York on 14 May.
Estimated at $70m (£35m), Triptych, 1976, is the most important work by Bacon left in private hands. The Art Newspaper understands that it is being sold by the Moueix family, owners of Château Pétrus, one of the world’s most fabled and expensive Bordeaux wines. Jean-Pierre Moueix, who died in 2003, was a noted patron of the arts and collector who owned works by Monet, Cézanne, Dufy, Picasso, Dubuffet as well as Bacon. His two sons carry on the family business and also own Dominus, a vineyard in California’s Napa Valley.
Triptych, 1976, has been in the Moueix family since it was bought from a show in Paris at the Galerie Claude Bernard in 1977, where it was illustrated on the cover of the catalogue. It has figured in all major exhibitions of Bacon’s work, and will be the highlight of Sotheby’s evening sale of contemporary art.
The complex theme of the large-format work includes that of the legend of Prometheus, who is bound to a rock by Zeus and has his liver devoured by an eagle, to which Bacon added elements from Aeschylus’ trilogy The Orestia. Orestes killed his mother, and was punished by being attacked by vultures, shown in the central panel of the work: two solemn faces are portrayed in the side panels, while naked bodies writhe below them.
Prices for Bacon’s work have increased sharply over the last year; consequently several major works have been consigned for sale over the last 12 months. The world record of $52.68m was set in May 2007 for Study from Innocent X, 1962, (Sotheby’s New York). In London this year, two major works have already been auctioned. Another Triptych, 1974-77, was sold at Christie’s in February with an unpublished estimate of £25m (which did not include premium). However it almost failed to find a buyer and sold for just £26.34m (£53.4m) which was presumably the reserve (the undisclosed price below which the painting cannot be sold). The auction can be watched on YouTube.
Later in the same month Sotheby’s auctioned a Study for a Nude Figure, 1969, which made £19.96m ($38.8m) with premium, again missing its low estimate of £18m-£25m.
LONDON. A three-panel painting by Francis Bacon could smash the auction record for the British artist’s work when it is offered for sale at Sotheby’s in New York on 14 May.
Estimated at $70m (£35m), the work, Triptych, 1976, is the most important work by Bacon left in private hands. The Art Newspaper understands that it is being sold by the Moueix family, owners of Château Pétrus, one of the world’s most fabled and expensive Bordeaux wines. Jean-Pierre Moueix, who died in 2003, was a noted patron of the arts and collector who owned works by Monet, Cézanne, Dufy, Picasso, Dubuffet as well as Bacon. His two sons carry on the family business and also own Dominus, a vineyard in California’s Napa Valley.
Triptych, 1976, has been in the Moueix family since it was bought from a show in Paris at the Galerie Claude Bernard in 1977, where it was illustrated on the cover of the catalogue. It has figured in all major exhibitions of Bacon’s work, and will be the highlight of Sotheby’s evening sale of contemporary art.
The complex theme of the large-format work includes that of the legend of Prometheus, who is bound to a rock by Zeus and has his liver devoured by an eagle, to which Bacon added elements from Aeschylus’ trilogy The Orestia. Orestes killed his mother, and was punished by being attacked by vultures, shown in the central panel of the work: two solemn faces are portrayed in the side panels, while naked bodies writhe below them.
Prices for Bacon’s work have increased sharply over the last year; consequently several major works have been consigned for sale over the last 12 months. The world record of $52.68m was set in May 2007 for Study from Innocent X, 1962, (Sotheby’s New York). In London this year, two major works have already been auctioned. Another Triptych, 1974-77, was sold at Christie’s in February with an unpublished estimate of £25m (which did not include premium). However it almost failed to find a buyer and sold for just £26.34m (£53.4m) which was presumably the reserve (the undisclosed price below which the painting cannot be sold). The auction can be watched on YouTube.
Later in the same month Sotheby’s auctioned a Study for a Nude Figure, 1969, which made £19.96m ($38.8m) with premium, again missing its low estimate of £18m-£25m.
Source: The Art Newspaper
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