September 2010

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In May, newspaper headlines were made by the sale to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovitch of Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping and Francis Bacon’s Triptych for a combined £60m. The results of the spring season sales generally reassured the industry that it did not appear to be experiencing the ill-effects of global financial woes.

Almost six months later and it is recent sales (or not) of works by Bacon and Freud that are prompting fears of a gloomier outlook. In London, on 29 October, a Freud portrait – of his friend Francis Bacon, in fact – sold for £5.4m but had been expected to sell for more. Last night the bidding for Study for Self-Portrait by Bacon (above) was halted at Christie’s, New York, when the figure only reached $27.4 m (£18.13 m). The lot’s estimate was $40m.

Whether or not disappointing sales are directly related to the fallout of recent banking crises, there was another interesting presence at last night’s sale – 16 drawings from the art collection of the former boss of the collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, and his wife. Three Willem de Koonings, five Barnett Newmans, four Arshile Gorkys and four Agnes Martins raised $13.5m (£9.1m) but were expected to fetch nearer $20m (£13.5m). The couple have retained the majority of their collection. It will, however, be interesting to see what happens in the art market in another six month's time.

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