Abramovich brings home €54m Bacon

ROMAN Abramovich has been ‘revealed’ as the mystery buyer of two paintings which smashed records at auction last week.

The Chelsea owner is said to have bought Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping for £17.2million (€21.6m) at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday night and Francis Bacon’s Triptych, 1976, for £43m (€54m) at Sotheby’s in New York.

The Art Newspaper quoted well-placed sources as saying the London-based billionaire was the buyer of both paintings.

Media reports claim his girlfriend, Daria ‘Dasha’ Zhukova, may be behind his desire to buy into the art world.

Abramovich’s spokesman declined to comment, he said: “We don’t get into personal matters.”