Christie's Hopes Artist's "Pope" Brings Home the Bacon

Rare work by expressionist Francis Bacon could set record for post-war art

The white-hot modern/contemporary art market may go sizzling even hotter when a seldom-seen work by Francis Bacon goes on the block next month in London. If all goes as planned, Christie's estimates that Bacon's 1956 "Study for Portrait II," modeled on Diego Velazquez's 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X, could fetch upwards of $20 million, according to numerous sources, including Bloomberg this morning.

The 1956 piece is "the most important work from Bacon's Pope series to appear on the market," Pilar Ordovas of Christie's in London told the BBC. The painting has been unseen for 40 years.

As we have reported here, the super-charged art market helped Christie's and rival Sotheby's post record numbers last year, with this masterpiece from the Dublin-born Bacon (a distant relative of 16th century English philosopher/statesman Sir Francis Bacon) an apparent indicator that art auctions will continue to make headlines in 2007.

Pictured: Christie's employees Rhiannon Broomfield (l) and Pilar Ordivas walk past Francis Bacon's painting, "Study for Portrait II, 1956" at Christie's Auction House on Monday. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)