A 1961 female nude by Francis Bacon may raise $15 million at auction next month as owners regain confidence in the market for the U.K.’s most expensive artist. Savvy collector members of the ARTKABINETT social network have seen auction prices climb steadily during the first half of 2011. “Crouching Nude” is valued at 7 million pounds to 9 million pounds and included in Sotheby’s (BID) London evening sale of contemporary works on June 29.
The Bacon market was boosted when his 1964 triptych, “Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud,” fetched 23 million pounds at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 10. The work was bought, at more than three times estimates, by the Cologne-based dealer Alex Lachmann, who acts for Russian clients.
“The market needed good works to gauge the new levels,” said James Holland-Hibbert, a London-based dealer. “Prices went up so quickly, then the crash came and no one was quite sure what Bacon was worth. The estimates had got too high.”
“Crouching Nude” -- a composite of some friend's of Bacon which include Isabel Rawsthorne, Henrietta Moraes and Muriel Belcher -- was one of 90 works included in a Tate Gallery traveling retrospective in 1962.
It was also in a 2006 exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery, London, where it was bought by an unidentified private collector, who is re-offering the work now, Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s European deputy chairman, said.
The seller hasn’t been offered a guaranteed price, he said. The estimate was based on a valuation of 7.5 million euros ($10.9 million) to 10 million euros placed on a similar 1961 Bacon female nude that fetched 13.7 million euros at Sotheby’s in Paris in 2007.
“Conservative estimates are the way to get the best auction prices,” Barker said. “The market’s still selective.”
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich paid a record $86.3 million for Bacon’s 1976 “Triptych” (shown here with artist) at Sotheby’s New York in May 2008, dealers said.
Works by the Irish-born artist were in short supply at auctions during 2009 and 2010.
Bacon’s 1974 “Three Studies for Self Portrait” will be offered at Christie’s International, New York, on May 11 with a low estimate of $20 million.
