Artnet : The Brooklyn Museum Sold a Francis Bacon Pope in 2019 for $6.6 Million. Helly Nahmad Is Selling It at Art Basel for More Than Twice That

Art World The Brooklyn Museum Sold a Francis Bacon Pope in 2019 for $6.6 Million. Helly Nahmad Is Selling It at Art Basel for More Than Twice That

The 1958 canvas was offered for $15 million.

Katya Kazakina, June 14, 2022

Francis Bacon's Pope. Photo by Katya Kazakina.

The Nahmad family is known for bringing some of the most expensive and significant modern artworks to international art fairs such as Art Basel. Inevitably, the Picassos, Rothkos, and Calders displayed on their booths act as bellwether for the high-end art market.

Some years, these paintings linger. Some years, they go fast. This year is a fast one.

The latest edition of Art Basel, which opened to VIPs on Tuesday, is an example of the booming market. By the end of the day, Helly Nahmad gallery sold its Francis Bacon Pope painting, according to a representative.

The 1958 canvas was offered for $15 million, and the sale price wasn't disclosed. Multiple people considered the work, according to the gallery. It was the second-highest-known price at the fair. Earlier in the day, Hauser & Wirth reported the $40 million sale of the 11-foot-tall Spider by Louise Bourgeois.

You may recall the ghostly Pope from Sotheby's contemporary art evening auction in November 2019, just before the pandemic struck. At the time, it was consigned by the Brooklyn Museum to raise money for its collections fund.Estimated at $6 million to $8 million, it fetched $6.6 million, bought by the Helly Nahmad gallery.

There's been a steady stream of high-end Bacon paintings at auction. Two years ago, billionaire Sotheby's owner Patrick Drahi was the winner ofFrancis Bacon'sTriptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus(1981), which fetched $84.6 million.

Earlier this year, star architect Norman Foster'striptychfetched $51.2 million at Christie's in London. Patrick De Pauw, a scion of a Belgian collecting family, sold Bacon'sStudy for Red Pope 1962, 2nd Version 1971(1971) for $46.3 million at Sotheby's.

Bacon's auction record of $142.4 million was established in 2013 for Three Studies of Lucian Freud (in 3 parts).

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Katya Kazakina Senior Reporter