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LONDON (AP) -- A Francis Bacon painting that the artist donated to an art college in lieu of rent decades ago has sold for $16.4 million at an auction where solid but unspectacular results suggest global financial turmoil may be unsettling the art market.

''Study from the Human Body, Man Turning on the Light'' was bought late Sunday by an anonymous bidder at Christie's auction house. The painting was given by Bacon to the Royal College of Art in 1969 as payment for renting a studio, and the college sold it Sunday to fund a new campus in south London.

This month's London auctions are being closely watched for signs that after several years of rising prices, the red-hot art market may be cooling.

The price paid for the Bacon painting, which includes a buyer's premium, was in the middle of Christie's presale estimate of $14 million to $18 million.

Fine-art insurer Hiscox says the value of contemporary art sold at auction rose by 55 percent during the first six months of the year. But many fear the weak dollar and fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis will hit prices.

The total for the Christie's sale was $80.6 million -- nearly double the total for the same sale last year. But 15 percent of the artwork went unsold.

Several high-profile lots underperformed, with works by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat failing to sell and several Damien Hirsts going for below their presale estimates.

It was a similar story at Sotheby's on Friday, when a Hirst polka-dot painting valued at up to $5.1 million went unsold.

Charles Dupplin, head of the art division at Hiscox, said any art-market slowdown would show itself first in a fall in sales, rather than prices.

''You won't see immediate price falls,'' he said. ''You just won't see the buyers.''

Pilar Ordovas, Christie's head of postwar and contemporary art, said the results showed ''confidence in the international art market, notably the postwar and contemporary art segment, with strong prices achieved for top quality and sensibly estimated works.''

In contrast to the lackluster performance of some famous Western names, the weekend's sales saw booming prices for contemporary Chinese art.

Christie's sold 10 Chinese works for a total of $10.6 million, including Zeng Fanzhi's ''Mask Series 1999, No. 5,'' which fetched $1.63 million -- more than four times its presale estimate.

On Friday at Sotheby's, Yue Minjun's ''Execution'' sold to a telephone bidder for $5.9 million, including buyer's premium, a record for a Chinese contemporary artist.

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On the Net:

www.christies.com

www.sothebys.com

Francis Bacon `rent' Painting Sold, NYT, 15.10.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Britain-Art-Sales.html - broken URL

A Pollock Is Sold,

Possibly for a Record Price

November 2, 2006
The New York Times
By CAROL VOGEL

The Hollywood entertainment magnate David Geffen has sold a classic drip painting by Jackson Pollock for about $140 million, art experts with knowledge of the transaction said yesterday.

That price, if officially confirmed, would be the highest sum ever known to have been paid for a painting, exceeding the $135 million that the cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder paid in June for Gustav Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I.”

The experts spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to be perceived as betraying the confidence of the seller or the buyer of the Pollock, “No. 5, 1948,” or jeopardize future business.

Reached by telephone, Mr. Geffen declined to comment on whether he sold the painting. Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s is said to have brokered the deal.

The art-world experts identified the buyer as David Martinez, the Mexican financier who bought a two-floor apartment in the south building of the Time Warner Center for $54.7 million recently.

Mr. Martinez did not return calls seeking comment. Obsessively private, he has emerged as a megabuyer in modern and contemporary art in recent years, snapping up works by masters like de Kooning and Rothko both privately and at auction.

Just last month Mr. Geffen sold two other 20th-century paintings — a Jasper Johns and a Willem de Kooning — for a total of $143.5 million. Given that he is among many business figures who has expressed interest in buying The Los Angeles Times, media industry analysts speculated that he was trying to raise cash for a potential bid.

The Pollock, a densely tangled composition in browns and yellows, is unusually large, measuring about 4 by 8 feet, and was painted on fiberboard.

Like much else in Mr. Geffen’s collection, it comes with a pristine provenance. Previous owners include the painter Alfonso A. Ossorio, a major Pollock collector from East Hampton, N.Y., and S. I. Newhouse Jr., the publishing magnate, who sold it to Mr. Geffen.

A Pollock Is Sold, Possibly for a Record Price,
NYT, 2.11.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/arts/design/02drip.html

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