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divdiv class=story-body readability=32 span class=story-date#13; span class=date12 November 2013/span#13;span class=time-textLast updated at /spanspan class=time21:03 ET/span#13; #13;/span#13;#13; #13;#13;#13; #13; #13; #13; #13; p class=introduction id=story_continues_1A painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after it fetched $142m (£89m, 106m euros) in New York./p#13; pThe triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), is considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces./p#13; pIt was sold after six minutes of fierce bidding, Christie's auction house said./p#13; pThe price eclipsed the $119.9m (£74m) paid for Edvard Munch's The Scream last year./p#13; span class=cross-head'Emotional kinship'/span#13; pIt was the first time Three Studies of Lucian Freud had been offered at auction and bidding opened at $80m (£50m, 60m euros). Its presale estimate was $85m (£53m, 64m euros)./p#13; pThe auction house did not disclose the identity of the buyer. /p#13; pBacon, known for his triptychs, painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 1969 at London's Royal College of Art, after his studio was destroyed in a fire./p#13; p id=story_continues_2Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie's Europe, said the work was a true masterpiece and one of the greatest paintings to come up for auction in a current generation./p#13; pIt marks Bacon and Freud's relationship, paying tribute to the creative and emotional kinship between the two artists, he added./p#13; pThe pair met in 1945 and became close companions, painting each other on a number of occasions, before their relationship cooled during the 1970s./p#13; pExhibited in Bacon's renowned retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1971-1972, the three panels that form the painting were separated in the mid-1970s./p#13; pOne panel was shown at the Tate in 1985 before the three sections were reassembled in their original splendour./p#13; pThe complete work was displayed in New Haven, Connecticut in 1999./p#13; pIt got its first ever UK public viewing at Christie's in London in October this year./p#13; /div/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center