Francis Bacon’s Study for a Portrait 1953 sells for £18m

A Francis Bacon painting has sold for nearly £18m at auction in London on Tuesday. Study for a Portrait 1953 exceeded expectation as Christie’s had valued the masterpiece at £11m. The oil canvas, which has not been up for auction before, was described as “an arresting and dark study in the degradation of power”. It was previously owned by two of Bacon’s contemporaries – Rodrigo Moynihan and Louis Le Brocquy.

The work was the second most valuable piece to be sold at one of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art sales. The highest selling work in this category was Bacon’s Triptych, which went for £26.3m in February 2008.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.