$6 Billion Francis Bacon Exhibit Opens in London

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Sep 12th 2008 at 4:03PM

Most of megabucks Irish artist Francis Bacon's major works - an estimated $6 billion worth in total - just went on exhibit at the Tate Britain in London. As my colleague Deidre Woollard reported in May, Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich slapped down a record-breaking $86.3 million for a Bacon triptych at Sotheby's.

The exhibition will run through January 2009; as we noted earlier this month, Abramovich is bankrolling a Bacon show of his own at his girlfriend's Moscow gallery in 2010. Meanwhile, the Times of London just declared Bacon, who died in 1992 long before his prices went ballistic, to be the "single greatest artist that Britain has produced in the past 100 years." That must come as something of a shock to Damien Hirst.

[via Men.Style]

Tags: contemporary art, ContemporaryArt, Francis Bacon, FrancisBacon, London, Museums, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich, Sothebys, Tate Britain, TateBritain