Christie’s secured 20 works from late Elaine Wynn’s collection, while LACMA got the $142 million Francis Bacon work.
Elain Wynn was a business magnate and a top art collector (alongside her former husband Steve Wynn). Following her passing in April of this year, a major question was the fate of her vast collection. Now, the question has been answered. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will be receiving Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969). Wynn bought the work in 2013 for $142.2 million, which broke the record for the most expensive painting ever auctioned at the time. Elaine Wynn served as the board co-chair of LACMA from 2015 until her death. The first Francis Bacon work in LACMA’s collection, it will go on display at the soon-to-be-inaugurated David Geffen Galleries. Wynn had also donated $50 million for the construction of this new section.
Meanwhile, Christie’s secured 20 works from Elaine Wynn’s collection to be auctioned. Titled “Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn”, the works would be sold across three auctions this fall season in New York. Collectively, they are expected to fetch at least $75 million. The highlights of the collection are The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer by Lucien Freud and Ocean Park #40 by Richard Diebenkorn. Both works are expected to fetch $15 million – $25 million each.
Also Read: Christie’s Reportedly Shutters Digital Art Department
Speaking about the collection, Wynn’s daughter Gillian Wynn said: “My mother celebrated every piece that she collected. She felt privileged to live with each and every one, but always understood that she was merely a temporary custodian. Good art moves and provokes us and then must live on to do the same for others.”
