Lucian Freud’s “Pregnant Girl” 1960-61 has sold for £16.1 million / $23.2 during the Sotheby’s London Evening Auction of Contemporary Art, smashing the pre-sale estimate of £7-10 million and setting a new record for an early painting by the artist.Pursued by at least six bidders, the stunning portrait depicts Freud’s then 17-year-old lover Bernadine Coverley while pregnant with their daughter Bella Freud. This was the first time that the work has been offered at auction, having been in the same collection for more than 30 years.Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s Senior International Specialist, Contemporary Art said: “This astonishingly beautiful painting embodies the profound bond between Lucian and the mother of his two daughters. There is arguably no other portrait by Freud that is more gripping, more tender, and more laden with such emotional depth.”The sale also achieved new auction records for Alberto Burri and Adrian Ghenie. Burri’s “Sacco e Rosso” (c. 1959) sold for £9.1 million / $13.2 million, nearly doubling the previous auction record for the artist of £4.7m which was set in February 2014, and Ghenie’s “Sunflowers in 1937” (2014) made £3.1 million / $4.5 million, more than double the artist’s previous auction record of £1.4m, also set in 2014.
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