A small format triptych by Francis Bacon of his lover George Dyer has sold for £26.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction in London.
Breaking previous record of £23m sale price for a work in small format, the piece by Bacon appeared for the first time at an auction as it was part of a private collection till 1970.
The auction is said to have been attended by private collectors from across the globe and was bought by collectors who truly wanted to own the triptych.
Cheyenne Westphal, co-head of Sotheby’s contemporary art department, revealed that the work has an interesting history considering how Francis Bacon and George Dyer came close to each other. Dyer broke into Bacon’s mews house after which “they became friends, lovers and extremely close”.
“Dyer committed suicide on the night of Bacon’s biggest and most important exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1971 and that was just for Francis one of the most horrific things”, added Westphal.
The painting sold at the auction is only one of the five known triptychs of Dyer in the small scale format. The highest price ever paid for a work of art at an auction was the sale of a large format Bacon triptych in New York last November that fetched £83 million.
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