Painting once owned by U2 sells for £6.8m as modern art auction booms

Paintings by Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter and Jean-Michel Basquiat racked up over £74m (€85m) in the year’s first major test of demand for contemporary art.

Bacon’s Three Studies for a Self-Portrait sold for £13.76m and a Basquiat painting once owned by the rock band U2 fetched £6.8m at London’s Sotheby sale.

Bacon painted the portrait, one of 11 smaller-scale triptychs, in 1980, a less sought-after period than the 1960s and 1970s. It is the only work for sale all week that carries an eight-figure estimate.