A 1976 triptych painting made by the late Irish-born figurative painter Francis Bacon was sold out for a splendid $86.28 million on Wednesday, 14 May in Sotheby’s big spring contemporary art sale. This is the highest bid that Francis Bacon’s work has evoked in an art sale and it effectively silenced the skeptics who forecasted that the art market would stagger because of the persisting global economic problems.

 

All those present at the Sotheby’s sat anxiously on the edge of their chairs as the painting of the famous artist Francis Bacon went for bidding. Triptych 1976 features a densely painted allegorical subject. Hinting at numerous themes inspired by the Greek Mythology, the painting is divided into three panels. The central panel shows a Promethean headless body being assaulted by a bird.

 

On the panel to either side, there is a picture of a blurred face bearing witness to the violence. The 1976 triptych painting of Bacon was being sold by the Moeuix family, who are the producers of Château Petrus wines. The Sotheby’s upheld this particular work as ‘a landmark of the 20th-century canon’. It estimated that it will sell for $70 million whereas the hammer price was $77 million.