Millionaire Destroyed Priceless Lucian Freud Painting

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Aug 26th 2008 at 6:02PM

British painter Lucian Freud's portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (above) sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for $33 million in May, setting a new world record for a living artist, and no doubt making him very happy. Freud just got some bad news, however; the artist was recently informed that one of his subjects, Bernard Breslauer, destroyed a similar portrait because he found the work "unflattering". Breslauer, a famed millionaire New York rare books dealer who once bought a Gutenberg Bible, destroyed the painting because of Freud's "unsightly depiction of his double chin," the London Daily Mail reports.

The destruction of the multimillion dollar painting by Breslauer, who died at the age of 86 in 2004, was discovered by a curator researching works painted by Freud between 1939 - 1954 for a retrospective exhibition taking place in London next month. Freud is reportedly extremely distraught at the discovery - as are Breslauer's heirs, no doubt.

Tags: Bernard Breslauer, BernardBreslauer, Gutenberg Bible, GutenbergBible, London, Lucian Freud, LucianFreud, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)

Adrienne W Aug 28th 2008 8:40AM

How was the monetary value of the destroyed painting going to be used to help numerous people? Do you mean the heirs could have sold the painting and gotten rich? If so, big deal. It's not like the money would have gone to charity. Just to people who are probably financially well off already. No sympathy there. Also for your information, Breslauer had every right to destroy the painting HE paid for and which was of HIM. If someone paints a picture of you and you don't like it, why would you give it back to the artist to sell? Why would you want someone to own a picture of you? Especially, one you don't like? It was his picture so he had the right to do whatever he wanted with it. Period. I would have destroyed it too. And, asked for a refund of my money.

An Artist Aug 27th 2008 12:46PM

If he was a Billionaire, maybe he should have gotten a pilate instructor and lost like 150 pounds before he had his portrait painted, rather than expecting an artist to paint over his extensive flaws. I mean if Picasso had painted it, he would have had a Square Head and rectangular eyes with a Bull sticking out of his ass.

william Aug 27th 2008 1:17PM

Your views are funny, and quite true. Nice to see someone around this pile of dirt-- has a point of view that is not so foolish! rich men light cigars with $100.00 bills --- poor men dream to be rich men and throw away hundreds of dollars on the lot-- mega bucks.. both silly..
Mankind throws away---- everything and then stands up and yells at his neighbor for doing the same thing... it's all so silly of course but at least one should learn from this and perhaps laugh.. heres to "bulls coming out of your bumm.."

. Aug 27th 2008 1:04PM

I knew BEFORE I even read the article that it was a Russian millionaire. The newly rich in that country are wreckless & out of control. One Russian billionaire just paid the most money ever paid for a private home. He bought it on the French Riveria.

joan zawacki Aug 27th 2008 1:47PM

I don't often read these comments, but I wanted to see what was said about the painting. Well, the comments gave me a very good chuckle, especially the Artist's about Picasso painting it. Right on....the truth hurts. It's like destroying all your pictures if they make you look fat, if you don't like that condition looking back at you. You could always diet, or go for a cubist/modern artist...then you can't be sure what you look like.

JJ Aug 27th 2008 2:26PM

Another Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure...This is a large-scale example of how we like to destroy things or throw things away that we don't like or don't need. Instead of throwing things out, we could donate to people in need. (Although the charity gets to keep 80% of the money.) In this case, the value was so high, that many people could have benefited. But in everyday life we get rid of stuff we don't like. It may be pennies to us, but to people in poorer countries, it is highly valuable. Not to mention...I hate it when commercials,tv, shows, movies destroys trucks, cars for thrills, because they could have donated the car to someone who needs it. Even though these Donate- Your-Car Charities, actually sell them and keep 80% of the value. All I'm saying is this painting was sadly destroyed, but look at all the destruction we are all doing with mass production of products, then throwing the items away for reasons like we don't have room for them, or no use for them, or we don't like them, etc.

Glenardo Aug 27th 2008 1:18PM

I have a Jackson Pollock painting. Now there's some questionable art. Some folks just have too much money....I guess. You can see mine at Jacksonpollockstudy.com

STEVE Aug 27th 2008 1:18PM

IT'S A CRIME, HE SHOULD BE ARRESTED AND SENT TO JAIL...

daddy-o Aug 27th 2008 1:19PM

I think the lady in the painting is a little too thin, I like my gals a tad on the big side

Artiste Aug 27th 2008 1:32PM

The standards used for judging fine art are anything but arbitrary. First, there's the cultural milieu the artist is working in: say, deconstructive or realism or postmodern. That's the only given.

Then, there's what matters most: the politics. Is the artist male and/or white? Good for them. Does the artist know how to schmooze? Better still. Does the artist know someone powerful in the field? Excellent! This artist will be remembered.

JJ Aug 27th 2008 1:48PM

I don't understand why so many of you can't read. I thought it was perfectly clear which painting the author was talking about. Next time read it carefully if you have that much trouble with the written word. It's interesting that there was little feedback on how the artists' point of view was misinterpreted. I've known of some who hate to sell any of their paintings because they love them so much.

dan Aug 27th 2008 1:44PM

No wonder he destroyed it. He looks like a naked morbidly obese woman in it to me.

moinks Aug 27th 2008 1:49PM

I'm happy now, it looked like Rosanne Barr. Gone forever now, I hope.

albert fish Aug 27th 2008 1:49PM

Lucian Frued is one of the greatest artists alive.
Of course if one were to assess the cultural literacy of the generalized reader of this article based off the some of the responses here, then I can only be thankful that wal mart gives these monkeys a place to smile for value.
Please try to have an informed opinion. Is that to much to ask?

me3344 Aug 27th 2008 6:07PM

Ok I'm glad it's not just me who found that hard to read and understand- whoever posted this needs to brush on their writing lessons if he or she is going to be a columnist for a website.

Still ridiculous and sickening how the overly-rich behave with their wealth and yet so many others are suffering around the world-there will be justice soon though:)

garyneebo Aug 27th 2008 1:53PM

yuk. That is ugly. Too bad it's not the painting that was distroyed...I can see the humor in it..the name of it.

ms.r Aug 27th 2008 1:56PM

now thats a credic

AFranco Aug 27th 2008 2:24PM

Uhhhhhh....HE OWNED IT. He could do whatever the hell he wanted to with it! It never occurred to me to question his right to destroy HIS OWN PROPERTY. If all of these people need so much help...maybe they should start with helping both themselves and others, instead of sitting around waiting for the other way around!

CJ Aug 27th 2008 2:01PM

Everybody is somebody's baby... While I find this piece, shown, personally revolting; I try to keep that in mind. I suppose if that were a painting of someone that meant the world to someone else--and I'm certain it is; I'd find the beauty in this piece of art. To someone, she is the world.