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Francis Bacon made about 45 studies of the 17th-century Spaniard Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X. Christie's International will auction one of them in London next month.
The painting done in 1959 by the British artist shows a stumpy- armed pope with a twisted face, draped in a reddish-black shawl and enthroned in a green chair. The seller is a European collector who has owned the picture since the 1970s, a Christie's specialist, Pilar Ordovas, said. The painting is expected to sell for about l5 million, or $8.8 million
Christie's, which is owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault, and the publicly traded Sotheby's Holdings are gathering art for their February sales in London. The Bacon picture is the top- priced lot so far for Christie's evening sale of postwar art, which the auction house expects to take in about l18 million for collectors cashing in on the boom.
The sale may provide a clue to price trends for postwar and contemporary art. Last year, Christie's took in l24.5 million from its evening sale, with Lucian Freud's "Red-Haired Man on a Chair" going for a record l4.2 million, and almost 60 percent of the works selling for more than the top estimates.
Bacon, who died in 1992, is among the top-priced British painters, along with Freud and Damien Hirst. Christie's set a record for Bacon in November, when it sold another of the pope studies in New York for $10.1 million. "Bacon is totally international," Ordovas said. His work appeals to both museums and to wealthy individuals, she said.
Bacon's most famous studies in the series show a screaming pope sitting in a chair, twisted with pain. The Christie's picture is much more static; the artist usually worked from postcards and photographs.
The Christie's catalog says the current owner bought the picture in London and that the three previous owners were based in London. Christie's will take Bacon's pope study on a tour to San Francisco and Palm Beach, Florida, to show it to collectors there.
At the same sale, Christie's will offer Freud's "Man in a String Chair" for as much as l4 million.
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