Trophy hunters fought over trophy paintings by Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon, as well as a pink stainless-steel “Cracked Egg” by Jeff Koons, at Christie’s sale of postwar and contemporary art here on Thursday night. But of the three artists, it was Bacon who once again stole the spotlight when an unnamed American collector paid $70 million for “Portrait of George Dyer Talking,” a 1966 canvas depicting the artist’s lover perched on a stool, his twisted body positioned under a naked light bulb as though he were being interrogated.
The painting, which is being sold by David Martinez, the Mexican financier, had last been at auction in 2000, when it fetched $6.6 million. Before the sale, Christie’s experts had estimated it would bring about $50 million, Telegraph informs.
