12 November 2013
Last updated at 21:03 ET
It was sold after six minutes of fierce bidding, Christie's auction house said.
The price eclipsed the $119.9m (£74m) paid for Edvard Munch's The Scream last year.
'Emotional kinship'
Bacon painting fetches record price
Bacon painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud at London's Royal College of Art in 1969
A
painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud
has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after it
fetched $142m (£89m, 106m euros) in New York.
The triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), is considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces.It was sold after six minutes of fierce bidding, Christie's auction house said.
The price eclipsed the $119.9m (£74m) paid for Edvard Munch's The Scream last year.
'Emotional kinship'
It was the first time Three Studies of Lucian Freud had been
offered at auction and bidding opened at $80m (£50m, 60m euros). Its
presale estimate was $85m (£53m, 64m euros).
The auction house did not disclose the identity of the buyer.
Bacon, known for his triptychs, painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 1969 at London's Royal College of Art, after his studio was destroyed in a fire.
The pair met in 1945 and became close companions, painting each other on a number of occasions, before their relationship cooled during the 1970s.
Exhibited in Bacon's renowned retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1971-1972, the three panels that form the painting were separated in the mid-1970s.
One panel was shown at the Tate in 1985 before the three sections were reassembled in their original splendour.
The complete work was displayed in New Haven, Connecticut in 1999.
It got its first ever UK public viewing at Christie's in London in October this year.
The auction house did not disclose the identity of the buyer.
Bacon, known for his triptychs, painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 1969 at London's Royal College of Art, after his studio was destroyed in a fire.
Continue reading the main story
$100M ARTWORKS
- Edvard Munch, The Scream - $119.9m (2012)
- Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust - $106.5m (2010)
- Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man I - $104.3m (2010)
- Picasso, Boy With a Pipe - $104.1m (2004)
Francis Outred, head of Post-War
and Contemporary Art at Christie's Europe, said the work was "a true
masterpiece and one of the greatest paintings to come up for auction in a
current generation".
"It marks Bacon and Freud's relationship, paying tribute to
the creative and emotional kinship between the two artists," he added.The pair met in 1945 and became close companions, painting each other on a number of occasions, before their relationship cooled during the 1970s.
Exhibited in Bacon's renowned retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1971-1972, the three panels that form the painting were separated in the mid-1970s.
One panel was shown at the Tate in 1985 before the three sections were reassembled in their original splendour.
The complete work was displayed in New Haven, Connecticut in 1999.
It got its first ever UK public viewing at Christie's in London in October this year.
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