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Portrait sold for record price
Thursday, 21 June, 2007
A portrait by British painter Lucien Freud has broken the record for any living European artist when it sold at auction (Getty Images)
A portrait by British painter Lucien Freud has broken the record for any living European artist when it sold at auction for 18 and a half million dollars.
The 1992 painting of Freud's friend Bruce Bernard, a photographer and art critic, easily surpassed its pre-auction estimate of $11 million at Christie's auction house in London.
The Freud was part of a sale of post-war and contemporary art which included works by Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol and had a total estimated value of up to $A174.3 million.
Among the other works in the sale were Warhol's Three Marilyns, which fetched $A13.2 million, and Bacon's Two Men Working in a Field, which went under the hammer for $A11.9 million.
The sale comes amid a bumper week of auctions in London for impressionist, contemporary and modern art, highlighted by the sale of a Monet masterpiece yesterday.
Nympheas, which had not been seen in public since 1936, was sold yesterday for $A43.5 million, the second-highest price tag ever for the artist at auction.
Source: AFP
The 1992 painting of Freud's friend Bruce Bernard, a photographer and art critic, easily surpassed its pre-auction estimate of $11 million at Christie's auction house in London.
The Freud was part of a sale of post-war and contemporary art which included works by Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol and had a total estimated value of up to $A174.3 million.
Among the other works in the sale were Warhol's Three Marilyns, which fetched $A13.2 million, and Bacon's Two Men Working in a Field, which went under the hammer for $A11.9 million.
The sale comes amid a bumper week of auctions in London for impressionist, contemporary and modern art, highlighted by the sale of a Monet masterpiece yesterday.
Nympheas, which had not been seen in public since 1936, was sold yesterday for $A43.5 million, the second-highest price tag ever for the artist at auction.
Source: AFP
