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Francis Bacon triptych painted in 1976 is expected to fetch about $70 million in the star sale of Sotheby's Contemporary Art auction in New York on May 14. If the work, billed as the most important privately-held Bacon extant, does max out despite all the
hand-wringing going on, the price will eclipse Impressionist claptrap like this
$40 million Monet while still falling far short of some puffed-up Picassos. (The middle panel is pictured here; see the image gallery for the complete piece.) Back in February, a Bacon triptych
sold for $46.1 million at Christie's in London, slightly below estimate, though the one currently on offer is the better work in our opinion.
Also included in the stunning sale is
Mark Rothko's 1956
Orange, Red, Yellow, expected to fetch in excess of $35 million; Jean-Michel Basquiat's beautiful
Untitled (Prophet I), est. $9 - $12 million; Robert Rauschenberg's 1963
Overdrive, est. $10 - $15 million;
Richard Prince's
Millionaire Nurse, est. $3.5 - $4.5 million; a 1986 Andy Warhol self-portrait, est. $2 - $3 million; an untitled
Cy Twombly, est. $1.5 - $2 million; and a very naughty
manga-inspired sculpture by Louis Vuitton collaborator
Takashi Murakami, valued at an astonishing $3 - $4 million.