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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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Bacon Breaks Record as Art Market Sizzles

Artist's 1976 masterpiece sells for $86M at red-hot Sotheby's sale

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(Newser) – A 1976 triptych painting by Francis Bacon became the most expensive piece of contemporary art ever sold when it went for $86.2 million at auction last night, Reuters reports. Seventeen other artists also set records at the sale, boosting Sotheby's to the best night in its 300-year history and quashing predictions that the economic slowdown would douse the red-hot market for postwar art.

A Sotheby's employee is pictured in front Francis Bacon's
A Sotheby's employee is pictured in front Francis Bacon's "Triptych, 1976" which last night broke the record for the most expensive piece of contemporary art ever sold.   (Getty Images)
The late Robert Rauschenberg's 1963
The late Robert Rauschenberg's 1963 "Overdrive" sold for just over $14.6 million last night, breaking auction records for work by the pop artist, said a spokesperson for Sotheby's.   (AP Photo)
This undated photo released by Sotheby's shows Francis Bacon's masterpiece painting,
This undated photo released by Sotheby's shows Francis Bacon's masterpiece painting, "Triptych 1976" which sold for $86 million.   (AP Photo)
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More detail on the Sotheby's auction
New York Times

More on Francis Bacon and his triptych paintings
Gagosian Gallery

Death of American master Rauschenberg could see art price soar
News-Press (Florida)


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art market • art • Sotheby's • Francis Bacon • painting • art auction • Robert Rauschenberg

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