$315.9 Million Adds Up to Sotheby’s Best-Ever Sale

Francis Bacon
"Self Portrait"
$33,081,000
Estimate upon request (in excess of $15 million)

Bacon painted a number of self-portraits during his lifetime, many of which, like this one, show his face as a painterly distortion. According to Sotheby's, this work, which the artist painted when he was 60, was the only self-portrait still in private hands. Several anonymous telephone bidders fought for it, and one of them prevailed.

Courtesy Sotheby's