Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich bought two paintings that were sold at record-breaking auctions last week, according to reports.
Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for £17.2m on Tuesday, followed by Francis Bacon’s Triptych, which fetched £43m just 24 hours later.
The Art Newspaper quoted sources saying the London-based Russian billionaire was the buyer of both paintings.
A spokesman for Mr Abramovich declined to comment.
He said: “We don’t get into personal matters.”
The life-sized Freud painting of a sleeping, naked woman, titled Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, sold for $33.6m (£17.2m) at Christie’s in New York.
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ART V FOOTBALL - HOW PLAYERS COMPARE
Andriy Shevchenko - £30m
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Shaun Wright-Phillips - £21m
Jose Bosingwa - £16.2m
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All values are estimates |
Christie’s described the work, which shows Jobcentre supervisor Sue Tilley asleep on a sofa, as a “bold and imposing example of the stark power of Freud’s realism”. Read more
Lucian Freud’s one-time muse was paid £20 a day to sit for a painting expected to fetch more than £17m.
But Londoner Sue Tilley said she did not do it for the money and had “lovely lunches” with the artist.
Freud’s 1995 work, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, looks set to become the most expensive painting by a living artist when it is sold in New York next month.
Ms Tilley - who is now a job centre manager - joked she had now become a broadsheet pin-up.
Ms Tilley - nicknamed Big Sue - told the BBC’s Today programme: “I can’t quite believe it, to be honest. Read more
A painting by Lucian Freud is expected to become the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction when it goes under the hammer next month.
The 1995 work, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, is estimated to fetch between $25m and $35m (£12.7m to £17.7m).
Freud painted Benefits Supervisor Sleeping back in 1995
The current auction record for a picture by a living artist is Hanging Heart, by Jeff Koons, which sold for $23.6m (£11.3m) in November 2007.
Freud’s painting has never been seen in public in the UK before. Read more
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