Francis Bacon painting sells for a record €51 million

A masterpiece by Francis Bacon has become the most valuable piece of artwork ever sold by auction house Christie’s in Europe after going under the hammer for a record £42.2m (€51m).

The 6ft-tall canvas of Bacon’s former lover and muse George Dyer had been estimated to sell for around £28m but was bought for almost double that by an anonymous buyer over the phone.

Dyer died of an overdose in Paris two days before the painting was displayed at Bacon’s first major retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971.