BREAKING NEWS

Francis Bacon triptych sells for record $142.4 mln at Christie's NY

NEW YORK - Francis Bacon's three-paneled painting "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction on Tuesday when it soared to $142.4 million at Christie's.
The 1969 triptych, never before offered at auction and which carried a pre-sale estimate of about $85 million, easily eclipsed the $119.9 million price of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," achieved in May of last year at Sotheby's.
The painting sold after a protracted bidding war in the packed New York salesroom and via telephone. Christie's did not disclose the identity of the successful buyer.