Francis Bacon triptych set to fetch $60 million at auction

(6 Mar 2020) LEAD IN:

A painting by Francis Bacon is expected to fetch at least $60 million when it goes up for auction later this year.

The work called Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus painted in 1981 when Bacon was in his 70s, was unveiled in London today (March 3, 2020).



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It's been called "a masterpiece of the modern age'.

And Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus  by Francis Bacon is up for sale.

It's being auctioned by Sotheby's in New York in May.

And the auction house expects it will sell for more than $60 million.

Described as a "monumental work" and with panels over 6 feet tall, Triptych Inspired By The Oresteia Of Aeschylus was painted by Bacon in 1981, and was bought by billionaire Norwegian collector and businessman Hans Rasmus Astrup in 1984. It has been in the care of a private museum he founded ever since.

"We're thrilled to be able to actually announce who the seller is," says Oliver Barker, Chairman of Sotheby's Europe.

"This is one of the most important paintings by Francis Bacon from a collection that's ever appeared at auction. And of course Bacon is the most valuable artist in the world having sold a painting about five or six years ago for over 145 million dollars."

That painting, Three Studies of Lucien Freud, set an auction record for any work at the time of sale in 2013.

Bacon was in his 70s when he painted Triptych Inspired By The Oresteia Of Aeschylus and, like many of his paintings, it was inspired by Greek tragedy and literature.

According to Barker this painting was particularly special to Bacon:

"It's a painting which first exhibited at Marlborough Gallery here in 1981 and Bacon was very excited, we have evidence from Valerie Beston who worked at the Marlborough Gallery, her diary said he was extremely excited about this picture and it's figured in major retrospectives at The Metropolitan in America, The Tate Gallery in London and also most recently The Pompidou Gallery in Paris."

Only six of Bacon's triptych paintings have ever appeared at international auction. According to Barker:

"Bacon's market really now is truly universal. Asian collectors are excited by his work, Middle Eastern collectors, European collectors, American collectors and he's still the topic of major dialogues by museum exhibitions around the world. So it truly is a great market moment."

Tom Eddison is the Director of Contemporary Art at Sotheby's and says the painting reflects on where Bacon was at this stage in his life:

"In the 1960s his work was very much about the friends that he was with and about looking at humanity through the lens of the people he was frequenting with, like Lucian Freud, like his lovers, George Dyer, Henrietta Moraes, Isabel Rawsthorne. By this stage in his life in the 1980s his life had, it was known as the final chapter of his own life and so he's looking much more about the essence of humanity as a whole rather than with individuals."

Triptych Inspired By The Oresteia Of Aeschylus will go under the hammer in New York on 13 May 2020, with proceeds from the sale going towards securing long term funding for the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, Norway.



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