Lucian Freud's portrait of Francis Bacon expected to fetch 7 million pounds

A portrait by Lucian Freud of Francis Bacon from 1956-57 will go on display today for the first time since the 1970s. The portrait has been privately owned since 1972. It is expected to be sold on Sunday at Christie’s in London for £7 million. The only other portrait of Bacon by Freud – the two artists were friends after meeting in 1945 - was painted in 1952 and stolen in Berlin in 1988. In May Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for £17.2 million, a record for the highest price paid in an auction for a work by a living artist. At the time the buyer was reported to be Roman Abramovich.