Francis Bacon's triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, sold for $142.4 million at auction.
The buyer of the most expensive piece of art ever to be sold at an auction is reportedly a woman of Qatar royalty who is prominent in the art world.
The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, reports that the person who dropped $142 million last week for Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” triptych is Qatar’s Sheikha Mayassa. The 30-year-old, who is sister to the current emir of Qatar and the former emir’s daughter, has been called “the art world’s most powerful woman” and a “culture queen.”
The Telegraph reports that Mayassa has an annual $1.61 billion art budget and also owns pieces by Rothko, Warhol, and Hirst.