Francis Bacon, Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 (detail), signed, titled, and dated 1969 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 78¨ú x 58¨û in. 200 x 147.7 cm. Est. in excess of $35 million. © Sotheby's Images

NEW YORK, NY.- On the evening of November 14, 2007, Sotheby’s sale of Contemporary Art in New York will feature two important paintings by Francis Bacon, Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1, and Self Portrait, among other works by artists such as Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Ad Reinhardt, among others. Both works by Bacon will be offered from a European Private Collection, where they have been for a number of decades. Executed in 1969, Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1, 1969, comes from a series of three paintings depicting the subject. The present canvas is estimated to sell for in excess of $35 million (estimates do not include buyer’s premium). From the same year, Bacon’s Self Portrait, painted when he was 60, is estimated to sell for more than $15 million. The offering of these paintings follows the success of last season’s sale of Bacon’s Study for Innocent X, 1962, which sold at Sotheby’s New York for $52.7 million, a record for the artist at auction, and his Self Portrait, 1978, which sold at Sotheby’s London for $43 million, the second highest price achieved for a work by the artist.
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