$86.3 Million Paintings - Triptych by Francis Bacon

Sotheby’s estimate that Triptych, created by the late Francis Bacon would fetch $70 million was surpassed by over $16 million. The sale of Triptych became, “the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction and a retort to doom-sayers who had predicted that the art market would falter seriously this season because of broad economic anxieties,” said Carol Vogel, New York Times’ Art & Design writer.

Triptych, painted in 1976, was hailed by Sotheby’s as “a landmark of the 20th-century canon.” The piece is not slight, it consists of three 78” x 58” oil on canvas panels.

Bacon seems to be the current hot commodity in the art community these days – nine of his paintings have each sold for over $25 million during the past year.