A Primer on the Price of Bacon

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
May 9th 2008 at 12:00PM

Francis Bacon, that is. In this week's New York magazine, Marion Maneker, art world expert and author of the brilliant men's style book Dressing in the Dark, reveals how the Irishman who "painted meat and blurry popes" came to command $70 million per painting at auction these days. Before 2005, he hadn't crossed the $10 million mark.

Essentially, a bunch of billionaires bid up his work - buyout king Henry Kravis bought one for $35 million last year, and other bigwigs recently paid $53 million for one of those blurry popes and $43 million for a self-portrait (similar to the triptych above, which could fetch $35 million at Christie's next week). Maneker points out however it's also due to the fact that Bacon, who died in 1992, was literally "one of the last great oil painters." His entire estate was only worth £11 million when he succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 82 - less than one little picture would bring now.

Gallery: The Twisted Genius of Bacon

Tags: Christies, Dressing in the Dark, DressingInTheDark, Francis Bacon, FrancisBacon, Henry Kravis, HenryKravis, Marion Maneker, MarionManeker, New York magazine, NewYorkMagazine, Sothebys

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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Sy Marcuse May 11th 2008 8:04PM

Details please. Values of Warhol Serigraphs (Flowers and Liz) Signed Editions of 300. Obtained through Leo Castelli Gallery directly, Flowers by mail; requested of A.W. "$5.OO Surprise" forwarded by Stable Gallery and Liz (with mysterious?Factory Fingerprint bottom center, given to me by Ivan Karp. You can ask Mr.Karp about this; I think he will remember. I spoke to him face-to-face in The Cigar Store area in Sept. 2005. Sy Marcuse 33 1 48 23 41 18 France