Bacon painting to fetch €9.4m

A FRANCIS BACON portrait of his friend is expected to fetch £7.5 million (€9.4m) at auction.

The work has been owned by Garech Browne, a member of the Guinness brewing dynasty, since 1970, a year after it was painted.

The portrait is of socialite Henrietta Moraes, who sat for several artists and was one of a small number of women that Bacon painted.